Zanesville Muskingum County Health Department Partners with Local Students for Anti-Vaping Campaign

ZANESVILLE, OH – The Zanesville Muskingum County Health Department is teaming up with area students for a new tobacco prevention media campaign.

The Health Department worked with middle school and high school students from Philo, Bishop Rosecrans, Bishop Fenwick and Tri-Valley to create anti-vaping posters and social media posts for their “Not To Be a Target to Big Tobacco” campaign.

Monica Batteiger, the Family Advocate at the Health Department, says they wanted to utilize their targeted audience in their campaign to make it more personal.

“I think that it’s important that our target audience sees their peers supporting good behavior.” Battieger said. “And now, the people who are struggling, see that they have people that maybe have some resources, that have some information that can help them, if they are struggling with vaping or with some addiction issues.”

Batteiger said the kids made Tik-Tok and Facebook Reel videos sharing their message.

Some of the students shared what they hope the audience will take away from their campaign and that their peers aren’t alone.

“My goal of what people take away from this is that they strive to stop vaping and that they hope that they can stop.” Ellesyn Gibson, an 8th grader at Bishop Fenwick, said. “And bring their addiction into something that is better for them like working out or just doing something more productive than vaping.”

“I know there’s a lot of people in schools who are vaping and I want them to know that they should quit and that it’s not necessarily their fault.” Hunter McPherson, a Junior at Philo, said. “But the companies that are targeting them.”

If you or someone you know is struggling to quit vaping, you can head to MyLifeMyQuit.com.