Creations from the Top Five Middle School and High School Students Showcased at ProtectMeWith3.com

Newark, NJ – January 23, 2015 – The Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey, in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Health, today announced the finalists for the third annual Protect Me With 3+ immunization awareness contest. The creative works of the 10 finalists – five middle school and five high school students – are now showcased at www.protectmewith3.com where public voting will begin on January 24.

The public voting will take place for two weeks. The top three posters and videos will be presented at an awards ceremony held on February 12 (rain date February 19). Individuals can vote every day until the ballot is closed on February 8, 11:59 PM EST.

In its third year, the Protect Me With 3+ contest aims to broaden awareness for the importance of adolescent immunizations among pre-teens, teenagers and their parents. The contest focuses on increasing vaccination rates for four adolescent vaccines: tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis (Tdap), human papillomavirus (HPV), meningococcal conjugate (MCV4) and influenza.

The contest offers prizes to the top three entries in the poster and video categories and the chance for winning entries to be distributed during statewide immunization awareness activities. A prize for the classroom with the most eligible submissions will also be awarded. The finalists for this year’s contest include:

Poster Contest:

Nayeon Park (Tdap) – George Washington Middle School
Virendra Gate(Flu) – Terrill Middle School
Justin Rizzi, Rachel Schuman (Flu) – Terrill Middle School
Sophia Iacona, Margot Rizzi, Paris Mercurio (MCV4) – Terrill Middle School
Julia Zucosky, Colette Franciscus, Zoe Rouder, Carly Dvorin (HPV) – Terrill Middle School

Video Contest:

Emily Churak (Flu) – Henry Hudson Regional
Adam Danzger, Dana Tsipenyuk, Avital Rubinchik, Julia Pak (HPV) – Tenafly High School
Gavriel Epstein (Tdap) – Torah Academy of Bergen County
Ian McBride, Dominic Capasso (HPV) – Manchester Township High School
Timothy Smith, Samantha Tracy, Liam Keller (Flu) – Cherokee High School

Previous winners can be viewed at https://protectmewith3.com/winners/.

About the Partnership

The Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation, licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH). Its mission is to improve the health of women, children, and families. The Partnership has more than 20 years of experience mounting community-based, consumer-friendly and culturally competent educational programs to parents, caregivers, pregnant women and individuals of child-bearing age. For more information visit, http://partnershipmch.org/

To learn more about vaccinations, please visit the Department of Health’s website: http://www.state.nj.us/health/cd/imm.shtml