Vaping is on the rise with youth in South Dakota. Teens and youth across the state are hopping on the trend, with little to no worry about how it is affecting them! To combat this growing issue, the South Dakota Foundation for Medical Care (SDFMC) hosted an anti-vaping hashtag and video challenge with South Dakota Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) Chapters.
Mindy Heuer, RN, CST, SDFMC program manager, points out,
“The increase of vaping in our youth and young adults is rising every year so, SDFMC took this opportunity to work with our high school students in South Dakota!“
The challenge includes a competition for a winning hashtag and a corresponding video to promote anti- vaping in youth and young adults. Rapid City Central won the hashtag competition with #SmokingYouMustBeJoking. The participating HOSA chapters then made a video using this hashtag. The videos are uploaded to the SDFMC Facebook page and students are encouraged to like and share their videos. This is a great opportunity to involve youth and young adults in the fight against this rising issue.
SDFMC attended the 2023 Spring SD HOSA Conference at the end of March to present the winners of the competition.
Vaping Challenge Winners: Rapid City Central- $250 Hashtag Award- #SmokingYouMustBeJoking Chamberlain- $1000 First Place Award Harrisburg- $500 Second Place Award Milbank- $250 Most Likes and Shares Award
This is SDFMC’s third year hosting the vaping video challenge and there was great participation from the South Dakota HOSA chapters, with some chapters submitted multiple videos. The following schools participated in the 2023 challenge: Milbank, Rapid City Central, Harrisburg, Chamberlain, Highmore- Harrold, Iroquois, and Fort Pierre. The full collection of videos can be viewed on the SDFMC website.
Watch the videos on our YouTube Channel and Facebook page!