Promoting awareness about drug and alcohol abuse, hundreds of Columbiana County students ages 8 to 14 created posters.
On Friday, the winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center.
Lissie Lorch, 11, of Leetonia, said the idea for her poster just 'popped into her head.'
"It was about a hot dog stand and some guy in line was smoking and there was a guy standing next to him that really didn't like it, so he was kind of like trying not to pay attention to him, but he really couldn't stop noticing it," Lorch said.
Here's how the contest works: School districts in the county host their own poster contests. This year, seven of the 12 districts in Columbiana County participated.
The posters are judged by a cross-section of people, from law enforcement to area art teachers.
Four winners are then chosen from each district, and from those students, four are chosen to represent the county in the state competition.
There's also a national competition for qualifying posters.
Coordinators of the event want the seeds they plant now to grow into a healthy way of life for these students.
"When the peer pressure starts to set in and decisions have to be made, this program might make them remember some of the things that they've done and maybe make some right decisions," said coordinator Ray Morelli.
Trophies and certificates are awarded to the winning students, but many of the kids said that's not what's important.
"It's really fun to participate," Lorch said. "You get to see the other people's ideas and see what they came up with, and then maybe they can teach you a few things about what they did."
The winners of this year's poster contest who will represent Columbiana County at the state competition are:
Zoe Bruderly of Leetonia (8 to 11 age group)
Sean Blake of Salem (8 to 11 age group)
McKenzie Martin of Salem (12 to 14 age group)
Other students who participated were:
Beaver Local School District: Tommy Bailey, Sierra Easterday, Alyssa Glenz, Chloe Palmer, Owen Dwyer and Victoria Zaluski.
Columbiana Exempted Village School District: Kaitlyn McDaniel, Paige Herbert and Lillian Kimpel
Crestview Local School District: MacKenzie Garrett, Madelyn Pallotta, Chloe Quetot and Andrew Yanssens
East Palestine School District: Julianne Jones and Trinity Schneider
Leetonia Exempted Village School District: Lissie Lorch, Kimberly Simpach and Caleb Witmer
Lisbon Exempted Village School District: Reagan Emmerling and Sophie Wells
Salem School District: Madison Brown, Gracie Galiffo and Dillan Hartman