Vote for our Teen Institute PSA!!

You can now show your support for Wood County Teen Institute by voting for our Public Service Announcement! 

On Saturday, Sept. 24, 63 Wood County students attended the Teen Institute annual leadership retreat and learned about public service announcements (PSA) and then produced their own to enter into an Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS) PSA contest.

One of the seven PSAs that were produced - affectionately known in the office as "The Shufflin' Video" - was entered into the ODADAS PSA contest.

 You can now vote for that video on the ODADAS Facebook page. Simply scroll down until you find the video titled "Entry for the Youth PSA Contest submitted by the Wood County TI," and "Like" the video. If you do that, you have voted!! You don't even have to have a Facebook account to vote!

Share this information with your friends and tell them to vote as well.

The contest winner - a.k.a. the PSA with the most "likes" - will be announced and recognized at the 2011 Ohio Prevention and Education Conference (OPEC), which will be held Nov. 15-17 in Dublin, OH. If chosen, our group will work with the ODADAS Office of Communications to potentially have the winning PSA aired in their local market. It also will be featured on the ODADAS Web site, Facebook and YouTube pages.

Now get out there and vote!! Thanks for your support.

Wood County youth gather join others for statewide leadership training

Fifteen Wood County High School Students representing gathered at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH last week with teens from across Ohio. The training, held July 17-21, was part of Ohio Teen Institute, a leadership training program that focuses on development of resistance skills to peer pressure and drug and alcohol abuse.

Student leaders in Wood County meet several times per year to be trained, to train others in these leadership strategies, and to show them ways to have a good time without bringing drugs and alcohol into the picture. Each summer, key student leaders gather at Kenyon College to re-energize, learn more, and prepare for the upcoming year.

Surveys returned by Wood County students after the retreat reported the training made them a better leader.

The majority of students also reported that they would use what they learned to help recruit new members to Teen Institute and help spread the group’s message in their schools.

Students who attended were:

Bowling Green:

Emily Drake

Eastwood:

Carli Kehres

Lake:

Kandie King

Karris Pugh

Daniel Ingle

Breanna Reardon

Amber Studyvin

North Baltimore:

Becka Adkins

Ashley Baisden

Ashlee Quantic

Tessa Reinman

Northwood:

Andrea Howard

Penta:

Jeremy TenEyck

Dustin Bolton

Perrysburg:

Ali Kopp

Additionally, the following students were chosen to serve as youth staff at the Teen Institute event:

Bridget Cushard (Bowling Green High School graduate)
Kaylyn Haynes (Lake High School)

Jeanine Lindquist, a prevention specialist with the Wood County Educational Service Center’s School & Community-Based ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug) Prevention Program served as adult staff at the state retreat.

Registration fees for participants were paid by ODADAS (Ohio Department of Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services) and by the Wood County Educational Service Center through a grant from the Wood County ADAMHS (Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services) Board.