Middle School Students Use Their Voices to Promote Kindness and Respect Online
As part of its Capital Healthy Students initiative, Capital Health recently announced the winners of its annual public service announcement (PSA) video contest. This year's campaign, Post Positive, invited middle school students throughout Mercer and Bucks counties to create peer-to-peer messages promoting kindness, encouragement and respectful communication both online and in person.
Centered around the messages "Think Before You Post" and "One Positive Post Can Change Everything," the campaign encouraged students to consider the impact their words can have online and in everyday life. While social media is a part of everyday life for today's students, Post Positive challenged them to pause and think before they post, comment or share, helping to foster a more thoughtful, respectful and inclusive online culture.
The campaign received 547 entries from schools across the region, representing a 55 percent increase over the previous year. Prizes were awarded in four categories: Most Creative, Most Impactful, Best Messaging and Honorable Mention. Each winning school received a $2,000 award for its PTO/PTA.
Rebecca Kelly, executive director of Strategic Partnerships at Capital Health and lead for the Capital Healthy Students initiative, presented award certificates to the winning students and teachers during special school assemblies and recognition ceremonies.
"What I love most about this campaign is that the message comes directly from students themselves," said Kelly. "One of this year's winning videos included the line, 'One post can bring someone down, but it only takes one second to choose a different path.' To me, that perfectly captures what Post Positive is all about. Every day, students have opportunities to lift someone up, include others and choose kindness. The creativity and thoughtfulness behind this year's submissions were truly inspiring."
Winners of the 2025-2026 Post Positive PSA Video Contest include:
Most Creative – Pennwood Middle School
Most Impactful – Newtown Middle School
Best Messaging – Lawrence Middle School
Honorable Mention – Timberlane Middle School
Post Positive is part of Capital Healthy Students, an initiative developed by Capital Health to empower students to make healthy choices, build leadership skills and create positive change within their schools and communities.
This fall, Capital Health will launch its next PSA campaign, Let's Clear the Air: The Truth About Vaping, which will challenge students to explore the dangers associated with vaping through creative, student-produced public service announcements.
To view this year's winning videos and learn more about Capital Healthy Students, visit capitalhealth.org/healthystudents or contact Rebecca Kelly at [email protected].