New Jersey Middle School Students Asked to Participate in PSA Challenge

MILLBURN, NJ – Attention Middle School Teachers!! Middle school students throughout New Jersey are being encouraged to take part in the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey’s annual Middle School Public Service Announcement Challenge.

The contest asks 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to write scripts to 30 second PSAs containing important peer-to-peer substance abuse prevention messages for a chance to have their script professionally filmed and aired on televisions throughout the tristate area. Entries are judged on creativity, message content, and ability to be produced. The deadline for entries is April 15, 2016.

“The Middle School PSA Challenge encourages our kids to become substance abuse prevention advocates,” said Angelo M. Valente, Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey. “We are always so pleased to see the powerful messages the students create to inspire their peers to lead a healthy lifestyle.”

Valente hopes that this year’s Challenge will yield even more creativity during a time when heroin and prescription drug abuse are reaching epidemic in New Jersey. “With the current substance abuse trends gripping our state, these young voices encouraging others stay drug free are more important than ever,” he noted.

The Middle School PSA Challenge is an annual contest held by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey that encourages that concept of peer-to-peer substance abuse prevention messaging. The contest is open to middle school students across the state. Students interested in entering the Middle School Public Service Announcement Challenge should visit: http://drugfreenj.org/assets/_control/content/files/2016mspsarules.pdf

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Best known for its statewide anti-drug advertising campaign, the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is a private not-for-profit coalition of professionals from the communications, corporate and government communities whose collective mission is to reduce demand for illicit drugs in New Jersey through media communication. To date, more than $70 million in broadcast time and print space has been donated to the Partnership’s New Jersey campaign, making it the largest public service advertising campaign in New Jersey’s history. Since its inception the Partnership has garnered 127 advertising and Public Relations Awards from National, Regional & Statewide Media Organizations.