The winners of the anti-tobacco contest are:

• Elementary age: Cole Languell from Shipley’s Choice Elementary School
• Middle school age: Ashley Gasca from George Fox Middle School
• High school age: Kayla Vlcej from Northeast High School

The 19th annual Tobacco-Free Kids Week, held Feb. 9-15, enlisted schools and other youth-centered groups to reach kids with anti-tobacco activities that included the T-shirt design contest, anti-tobacco pledges, displays, trivia contests and murals. This year’s event saw 152 county groups hold anti-tobacco activities for almost 70,000 youths.

For the first time, Smoking Stinks sought community input for the winning T-shirt designs through online voting. There were 63 entries in the contest and more than 6,900 votes were cast for the favorite anti-tobacco T-shirt design in three categories: elementary, middle and high school age groups.

The countywide winners in each category will have their designs printed on custom T-shirts for themselves and their sponsoring groups. Each countywide winner will also receive an iPod. All entrants receive Smoking Stinks drawstring bags and a certificate.

Designs are posted on the Showcase page of the Smoking Stinks website, www.SmokingStinks.org.

by Deb Belt from odenton.patch.com