Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 04/02) - The Quit and Win Contest was aiming for three per cent of Northerners to participate in first edition of the contest in the NWT.

But Rosella Stoesz, contest co-ordinator, was overjoyed on Wednesday when the results were compiled and nearly five per cent of Northern smokers butted out.

Five hundred adults registered for the contest and more could still be coming in as mail in registrations from Sept. 30 are still being collected.

Stoesz said she was unsure how many registrations they would actually receive because many people left registering to the last minute.

In addition to the 500 adult registrants, 50 teens are participating in the contest.

Stoesz said because the contest has not been open to teens in the past, they did not set a goal for entries.

"We would be happy if we had more, but we purposely did not set a goal because we knew there would be a lot learning. It's the first time we tried it and the first time it's been tried this way for teens," said Stoesz.

Contestants will now go smoke-free until Jan. 6.

A grand prize will be drawn on Jan. 7, and awarded during National Non-Smoking Week, Jan. 19-25.

Intermittent prizes will also be given out throughout the contest.

The grand prize for adults is a trip for two to Mexico. The teen prize is a trip for two to the Calgary Stampede in July.

The committee is emphasizing the importance for people to find a support system to assist in the quitting process.

As the contest proceeds the committee will evaluate its success to determine if it will be done again next year.

"It's too early to say we need to evaluate the contest on more than just entries," said Stoesz.