Photo Contest Instructions and Forms

KC Healthy Kids created the Champions for Health photo contest to empower students to speak out for healthier communities.



What could your school do with $2500? What would your students do with $2,500? The Champions for Health photo contest gives students the power to make big changes at their school that support health. Through photo essays classrooms submit health and wellness project proposals designed for kids by kids.

 

 

Submit Photos

 

 

Teachers are encouraged to help students think critically about their communities’ amenities, such as walking trails or broken sidewalks, safe playgrounds or blighted lots, schoolyard gardens or fast food restaurants.

 

The contest is open to third- through eighth-grade classrooms in incorporated schools in Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties in Missouri.

 

This year, we’re offering 24 prizes:

 

  • $2,500 Grand Prize
  • $1,000 Grade Level First Place (5 awards)
  • $100 Honorable Mention (18 awards)

 

Key Dates

 

Contest Begins: August 1, 2019
Contest Ends: December 6, 2019
Winners Notified: January 2020
Awards Ceremony: Spring 2020

 

 

Instructions

 

 

The Champions for Health photo contest was created to empower youth to lift up their voices in our collective effort to create healthy communities. The contest asks students in grades 3-8 to tell their stories through captioned photographs of how their environments make eating healthy and being physically active easy or hard and how their project idea will make it better!

 

Classrooms will describe their wellness projects through photos and captions that answer the following questions:

 

 

  1. Our class goal/project:
  2. How much will your project cost?
  3. What problem will this project fix?
  4. How will this project help your school be healthy?
  5. Who can help? What adults do you need to speak with about your project?
  6. What barriers do you need to work through to achieve your goal?
  7. Why are you passionate about this project? Why is it important to you?

 

Classrooms can submit 1-4 photos to answer each of the questions. Photos can include areas in the school that need improvements, student drawings or sketches of student ideas, the people who can help them succeed, photos of kids and community members their project will benefit. Classrooms are encouraged to be creative as long as the photos are not photoshopped or digitally altered.

 

Winning entries from grade levels 3-8 will receive a $1,000 cash award. Winning classrooms are expected to use funding for student led wellness projects at the school. 

 

Who Can Enter?

 

 

Grades: 3rd – 8th grade classrooms
Schools: Incorporated public and private schools in eligible counties. Home schools or clubs not affiliated with public or private schools are not eligible.
Counties: Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte in Missouri, and Johnson and Wyandotte in Kansas

 

The entry must meet the following conditions:

 

  1. Classrooms will describe their wellness projects through photos and captions. Each photo must be accompanied by a caption of 100 words or less, explaining how the photo answers the submission questions.
  2. The real benefit  of the project lies in the students’ ownership and engagement of the photos and captions. Adult leaders may guide students in using a camera or understanding the themes, but they cannot write captions for the students.
  3. The entry includes original work that has not been edited or enhanced with digital filters, graphic design, or layouts.
  4. If any persons appear in the photograph, participating classrooms are responsible for obtaining and keeping on file any and all releases as set forth in these Contest Instructions (see Releases section below). Get a Consent Form
  5. Submitted photos must meet Technical Requirements detailed below.

 

 

 

How to Enter?

 

 


Entries must be submitted by mail, electronically, or in person. Entries on digital media (e.g., CD, flash drive) may be delivered in person, by USPS, or other carrier to KC Healthy Kids at 650 Minnesota Avenue, 2nd Floor, Kansas City, KS, 66101. Entries must be received on or before 5:00 p.m. on contest deadline.

Electronic entries should be posted no later than 11:59:59 p.m. on contest deadline. 

 

 

 

Judging

 

 

Entries will be judged based on storytelling, visual appeal, potential positive impact of the project, passion conveyed for project, and relevance to healthy eating and active living. Judges will rate each submission as a collection, not individual photos. There is no penalty or bonus for the amount of photos submitted.

 

Judges are volunteers from the Greater Kansas City area. Their decisions are final. Winners will be notified no later than January 31, 2018. In the event a winner does not accept a prize or a winner is ineligible, an alternate winner may be selected.

 

 

 

Grand Prize

 

 

At the Champions for Health Youth Summit, First Place Winners will have a chance to share their big ideas and the best pitch will be rewarded with the $2,500 grand prize! ($1,500 in addition to the $1,000 you already won)

Each class will be given 5 minutes to tell the crowd their idea for creating a healthier school or neighborhood. Dream big! What could you accomplish with lots of money and volunteers? What will make a big and lasting impact in improving healthy eating and active living in your school or community?

Note: Classrooms must be able to present at the Champions for Health Youth Summit to be eligible for the $1,000 Grade Level Prize and $2,500 Grand Prize.

 

 


Technical Requirements

 

 

Photos must be in digital format suitable for printing in media or exhibition display.

 

  • All digital images should be at least 1,400 pixels wide (if a horizontal image) or 1,000 pixels tall (if a vertical image) and must be in JPEG or JPG format. If you aren’t sure how big your photo is, follow these instructions:
    • On a Mac, open the image file in PREVIEW. Click on TOOLS in the top menu and select GET INFO. A pop-up window will open. Select DETAILS. This will show the pixel height and width of your photo.
    • On a PC, right click on the image file, look at PROPERTIES, and then the SUMMARY tab.
    • Picmonkey.com is an excellent photo editing website that makes resizing photos easy. Just remember that no filters can be used on submitted photos.
  • No print or film submissions will be accepted for entry to the competition.
  • Photos may not be enhanced with filters, frames, type or other effects. Only minor adjustments such as cropping and/or color correction are acceptable.

 

 

 

Releases

 

If any persons appear in the photos, the entrant is responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photo, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the photo in the manner set forth in these Contest Instructions. If any person appearing in any photo is under the age of majority, the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.

 

 

Get a Consent Form

 

 

Upon KC Healthy Kids’ request, each entrant must be prepared to provide (within seven calendar days of receipt of the request) a signed release from all persons who appear in the photo submitted, authorizing KC Healthy Kids to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entry in connection with the Contest and promotion of the Contest, in any media now or hereafter known in the performance of KC Healthy Kids’ mission. Failure to provide such releases upon request may result in disqualification at any time during the Contest and selection of an alternate winner.

 

 

Disqualification

 

The following conditions are grounds for disqualification:

 

  • The entry infringes upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violates any person’s rights of privacy or publicity.
  • The entry includes personally identifiable information about students, teachers, or any other person(s).
  • The entry contains objectionable, unlawful, hateful, obscene, or inappropriate content, which is determined at the sole and unfettered discretion of KC Healthy Kids.
  • The entry contains material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law.

 

 

Awards

 

 

This year, we’re offering 24 prizes:

  • $2,500 Grand Prize
  • $1,000 Grade Level First Place (5 awards)
  • $100 Honorable Mention (18 awards)

 

 

Awards are restricted for health and wellness uses at the participating school. Examples are schoolyard gardens, new P.E. equipment and supplies, bike racks, nutrition education, etc. 

 

 

Terms and Conditions

 

By entering the Champions for Health youth photo contest, entrants agree to accept the competition rules and its terms and conditions. Entrants agree that any image submitted to the competition may be used by KC Healthy Kids for advancing its nonprofit mission in present and future years. Uses may include, but are not limited to, the following:

 

  • Inclusion within any materials promoting the contest and any exhibitions organized by KC Healthy Kids; and
  • Display on KC Healthy Kids’ website, social media platforms, reports and briefs, or other similar promotional or educational materials.

 

By participating in the Contest, participants and winners agree to release, discharge and hold harmless KC Healthy Kids, and its agents, directors, officers, employees, insurers, affiliates, predecessors, successors, representatives, and legal advisors, and all others associated with the development and execution of the Contest, from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind arising out of or relating to the Contest, participation in the Contest, any award, or any portion thereof that may have been offered, and/or acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any award, or any portion thereof that may have been offered, including but not limited to statutory and common law claims for misappropriation or participant’s right of publicity.

 

Participants have the right to access, review, rectify, or cancel any and all entries made to the Champions for Health photo contest by emailing such request to KC Healthy Kids at mdake@kchealthykids.org