Can Free Movie Tickets and Pizza Get Pierce County Kids Off Their Phones This Weekend?
A grassroots initiative involving students, school staff, and community members is encouraging kids to unplug from their phones with chances to win prizes. The campaign offers incentives such as trampoline park passes, movie tickets, and pizza gift cards.
About the Campaign
Thriving Generation, a grassroots movement led by educators, faith leaders, doctors, students, and volunteers in the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula areas, invites children to refrain from using their phones from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for an opportunity to win one of over 20 prizes.
John Hellwich, a founding member of the group and the Peninsula School District’s director of secondary teaching and learning, explained this will be the first in a series of quarterly challenges organized by the group.
How to Participate
- Kids can enter the prize drawing by filling out a form at peninsulathrivegeneration.org/contest-google-form.
- The campaign is based on the honor system.
- Winners will be selected on Monday following the challenge.
- The challenge is open only to residents of the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula regions.
Context and Concerns
This initiative emerges amid growing national concern over how cell phone and social media use affect youth mental health. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory highlighting these risks to children and teenagers.
The Surgeon General warned of social media’s risk to youth mental health.
Locally, these concerns have prompted action as well. In 2023, the Peninsula School District became one of the state’s first districts to prohibit student cell phone use during regular school hours outside of lunch breaks.
Summary
This community-driven effort aims to reduce screen time among kids by offering fun incentives, reflecting wider efforts to address youth mental health concerns related to phone and social media use.
Would you prefer a more formal tone or a casual one for this text?