Grand prize winners from Kuna and Boise win $2,000 each
While Idaho is in the grips of a youth vaping epidemic, the prize patrol from Idaho Public Television’s KNOW VAPE campaign visited classrooms in Kuna and Boise to hand out grand prizes and big checks to two teens trying to help solve the problem.
Troy Edwards from Kuna Middle School and Maximilian Carter from Boise High School took the top honors for their anti-vape videos entered in the 2024 KNOW VAPE teen video contest. Each will take home $2,000.
This is the second year of the KNOW VAPE teen video contest, which asks Idaho teens to produce a 90-second video that speaks to the dangers of vaping and tips on prevention or how to quit vaping.
Edwards’ video, called “Do Something Awesome,” highlights how experimenting when you’re a teen is a great way to learn—but not when it comes to vaping.
“The judges loved how Troy highlighted Idaho’s rural side and his use of eye-catching experiments—a ball-drop from a silo and a potato launcher? That was brilliant,” says KNOW VAPE executive director Jennie Sue Weltner. “Troy’s video was pure Idaho: authentic and unexpected.” When asked what Edwards would do with the grand prize money, he explained, “I show 4-H animals, so I’ll probably use the money to buy my animals this year.”
Carter did his take on the famous 1987 anti-drug ad campaign featuring a frying pan, an egg and the line “This is your brain on drugs.”Carter’s video, titled “This Is Your Lungs on Vape,” leads viewers through all the ways vapes damage young bodies, with Carter cracking many eggs along the way. “I lit a pan on fire to represent someone who’s addicted to vapes. I think that is a pretty accurate representation of what happens to people who do this stuff. I know a lot of people that have friends who have gotten to the point where vaping is all they can think about or talk about,” Carter shares. “I think it is very cool that Idaho Public Television puts this stuff on, and that people can show their skills and raise awareness about something they care about.”
Nineteen other teens in Idaho also took home first-, second- and third-place prizes for a total prize package of $10,000. Four first-place winners received $750; five second-place winners received $400; and five third-place winners received $200.
