1999 Award Winners National Winner East Mid-West Central South West Group Award

Andrew Berndtis angry, and he is not going to take it anymore. Andrew was 12 when he first learned about how tobacco companies manipulate kids with their ads. Now 16, and a junior at Mounds View High School in Shoreview, Minnesota, he is taking on the tobacco industry and exposing the ways it targets youth. His efforts have earned him the 1999 Central Regional Youth Advocates of the Year Award from the Washington, DC-based CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS.

Andrew became involved in tobacco prevention activism after a friend invited him to a weekend advocacy training session with the Minnesota Smokefree Coalition. He then began to notice how much tobacco advertising and marketing he and his friends encountered every day. To illustrate the problem, Andrew created an 8x16 foot display of tobacco-branded merchandise. He presented this "Wall of Shame" to former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. and former Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey at the statewide "Smoke and Mirrors" Youth Summit in September, 1998. He has displayed the "Wall of Shame" at the State Capitol as an unmistakable message to legislators that Big Tobacco is targeting kids. Andrew also created a presentation for the Minnesota Science Museum's "Ethics and Advertising" exhibit.

The "Wall of Shame" not only exposed the tobacco companies' attempts to market to kids, but also brought together young people who donated the merchandise in exchange for clothing with anti-tobacco messages.

"By involving other kids in this project, it made us all feel like we could do something to fight back," said Andrew. "Youth need to know that they can have an impact and they do have a voice."

Andrew helps give his peers that voice as one of six teen trainers for Minnesota’s KICK BUTTS program, which teaches young people to become advocates and spokespeople in tobacco prevention. He also is reaching out to younger kids through peer education. For his Eagle Scout project, Andrew developed a presentation for middle school students on the availability and human cost of tobacco-branded promotional items.

"Kids need to get the message early so they know from the beginning about the very real and dangerous effects of tobacco products," said Andrew, who believes that this education should begin in kindergarten.

Andrew knows that education and prevention efforts take a lot of time, energy and money. He's providing the time and energy and lobbying his state legislature to provide the money from funds received through Minnesota's settlement with the tobacco industry.

"This settlement provides us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in young people today and in the next generation," said Andrew. "We can't hope to compete with the piles of tobacco ads and merchandise if we don't get better funding."

In his role as a Youth Advocate of the Year, he will serve as a spokesperson for the CAMPAIGN at media events, share his views on tobacco prevention with his peers and adults, work to increase awareness of the tobacco industry's insidious youth marketing tactics, and encourage kids across the country to take a stand against tobacco use in their communities.