TAFP selects the 2012 Texas Tar Wars poster contest winner

Academy leaders top advisors panel

Congratulations to the 2012 Texas Tar Wars Poster Contest winner, Juan Elizondo of Houston, Texas, a fifth-grader at Crockett Elementary School. Elizondo’s poster, “Blow Bubbles Not Smoke,” was selected for the grand prize from many entries by a panel of TAFP members. His message reinforces the anti-smoking mission supported by Tar Wars and the Academy.

Elizondo will receive travel funding to travel with a parent to the Tar Wars National Conference in Washington, D.C., in July. In addition to competing in the national poster contest, he will have the opportunity to meet with his senators and representatives and talk about the need for greater tobacco control efforts.

In other Tar Wars news, two TAFP leaders have been chosen to lead the Tar Wars Program Advisors Panel. Rebecca Hart, M.D., serves as chair. She is the associate program director of the San Jacinto Methodist Family Medicine Residency Program. Kaparaboyna Ashok Kumar, M.D., F.R.C.S., serves as vice chair. He is professor and vice chair of medical student education at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The advisors panel represents a mix of academic backgrounds, past experiences with the program, and diverse skill sets that contribute to the continued development, success, and growth of the Tar Wars program. Program advisors serve a two-year term beginning Jan. 1 of each year and ending Dec. 31 of the next year.

Tar Wars, led in Texas by TAFP, is AAFP’s nationwide education program to prevent tobacco use among children. Tar Wars provides students with the tools to make positive health decisions and promote personal responsibility for their own well-being.

Physicians volunteer to present educational curriculum to fourth- and fifth-grade students in their community, and the students compete in a poster contest demonstrating their personal tobacco-free message.