Students in grades 1-6 are invited to submit a poster or video to the state considering the prompt “How to Prevent a Tick Bite.” The young people are asked to include tick prevention methods in their submission, like use of commercial insect repellents, applying the insecticide Permethrin to clothing, and thorough tick checks after outdoor play.
This will be the third year this contest is hosted, put on by the Shapiro administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Leah Lind, the DOH's Lyme and Tick Borne Disease coordinator, said the goal of the project is to educate children and young families on Lyme disease and tick-bite prevention methods.
“We want [the students] to understand that they do have the tools to prevent tick bites and still enjoy all of those outdoor activities, and we would like them to pass that along to their peers so that their peers can understand the same prevention strategies that they have just learned, and then also to their families,” Lind said. “In effect, they're becoming kind of an ambassador for tick bite prevention.”
Pennsylvania ranks in the top five states for Lyme disease cases by population, and children ages 5-14 are the most at risk. Lind hopes that events like this can help to curb these numbers.
“Children play outside a lot. They may not take as much care to avoid ticks. They may play with pets and things like that,” Lind said. “And so this is a group that we wanted to provide some more information and to help them learn how to prevent tick bites.”
The contest will close for submissions this Friday at 5 p.m. Winners will be announced in May and invited to the state Capitol in Harrisburg, where their work will be publicly displayed. The finalists will also be featured in a calendar distributed at the annual farm show.
