Britney Young earns top honors in statewide anti-tobacco poster contest

Waltham, Mass. – June 6 – Britney Young, a second grade student at the Ditson Elementary School, Billerica, has won top honors in the 2016 Anti-Tobacco Poster Contest, an annual educational event to alert schoolchildren to the dangers of tobacco and smoking sponsored by the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) and its Alliance.

Britney was one of just 12 winners selected from more than 4,200 entries to the competition. Her entry, entitled “Tobacco: don’t do it!” highlighted the lethal dangers of smoking.

The competition is open to youngsters in grades 1-6 throughout Massachusetts and asks students to create an original poster that ties in with certain themes for their grade. The themes by grades are: Grades 1 and 2: Show how tobacco is bad for your body; Grades 3 and 4: Show how using tobacco affects other people; Grades 5 and 6: Why I won’t start. Four entries are selected in each category, and the winning entries are chosen on the basis of originality, artistic merit, and relevance to the theme for the grades.

Winners were honored at a special June 2nd event at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, where they received a certificate from the Medical Society and a gift card for books as prizes. Winning entries will also be included in a 2017 calendar produced by the Medical Society that will be distributed to schools, pediatricians, and family physicians across the Commonwealth.

Presenting the awards were James S. Gessner, M.D., President of the Massachusetts Medical Society; Ulku Akyurek, M.D., President, MMS Alliance; and Alan Ashare, M.D., President of the MMS Committee on Student Health and Sports Medicine.

This year marked the 20th year that the Massachusetts Medical Society has conducted the contest.

About the MMS The Massachusetts Medical Society, with some 25,000 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society, under the auspices of NEJM Group, publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global medical journal and web site, and Journal Watch alerts and newsletters covering 13 specialties. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education providing accredited and certified activities across the globe for physicians and other health care professionals. Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. For more information please visit www.massmed.org, www.nejm.org, or www.jwatch.org.