Ahead of the Irish Cancer Society’s X-HALE Youth Awards, Youth Booth @ The Maple Youth Centre in Ballinrobe is looking for local support to help them win the Online Award on offer at the national event. The group have submitted their film project ‘Not Only the Smoker Suffers’ and are calling for public support via online viewing to win one of the top awards on offer.
X-HALE is an initiative of the Irish Cancer Society which aims to empower young people to tackle smoking in their communities and raise awareness about the dangers of smoking among their peers. The X-HALE Youth Awards national showcase event in the Light House Cinema in July will be the finale of months of hard work by youth groups nationwide in preparing short films and projects to encourage young people to be smoke free.
Ahead of the national event which will see the entries judged by an independent judging panel, the youth groups have an opportunity to win the public vote via online viewing on You Tube. Youth Booth @The Maple Youth Centre in Ballinrobe is calling on people in Mayo to support their entry as they compete for the Online Award. The X-HALE Youth Awards 2016 entries are now live at www.cancer.ie/xhale2016 and can be viewed up to June 29th. The entry with the most views will win the Online Award as well as a ‘Go Pro’ camera for their group.
Sarah Chadwick, Cancer Prevention Officer at the Irish Cancer Society said: “We are so proud of everything that the young people from Youth Booth @The Maple Youth Centre in Ballinrobe have achieved. They have educated themselves about smoking, learned new skills and worked together to create a piece of work that will inform and inspire other young people across Ireland and beyond. They are leading the way in the movement towards a tobacco free society and improving the health of their local communities. We commend their commitment to establishing Ireland’s first smoke free generation. We are asking the public to get behind their local group or favourite entry by watching and sharing the X-HALE 2016 playlist.”
This is the sixth year of the X-HALE Youth Awards and smoking rates among young people continue to decline. In 2016, 33 youth groups from around the country are participating in the initiative. Entries submitted show that young people truly understand the dangers of smoking and the power of the tobacco industry.
For further information on X-HALE and to watch the entries visit www.cancer.ie/xhale2016 . Follow the X-HALE conversation using the #TheXGeneration or go to the Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/XHaleYouthAwards or the Tumblr blog www.thexgenerationxhale.tumblr.com
