DAYTON, Ohio — A 14-year-old was recently named the grand prize winner of the Public Health of Dayton and Montgomery County youth mask contest with his drawing of a doctor knocking out COVID-19.

What You Need To Know

  • Public Health of Dayton and Montgomery County recently announced the winners of its Youth COVID-19 Mask Design Contest

  • 14-year-old Jesse White was the grand-prize winner

  • His design was of a doctor fighting off COVID-19

  • Jesse said his dad, who works at a hospital, was the inspiration behind the design

“I thought about how I could show appreciation for the people who are fighting on the frontlines and I was also doing something I really love to do, which is draw,” Jesse White IV said.

Public Health of Dayton and Montgomery County officials said they hope Jesse's new design will motivate more people to wear their masks.

“The contest was designed to reinforce the importance of our community taking the pandemic seriously and the importance of mask-wearing in the community as we fight to defeat the spread of COVID-19,” said Debbie Letlow, HIV Outreach Coordinator and Co-Chair for CHEEO, in a press release.

Jesse's design will be recreated by a graphic artist and distributed throughout the community, officials said.

Jesse White IV

Jesse said his father, Jesse White III, was the inspiration behind the design.

While working in the hospital, Jesse's dad said he sees firsthand the impact of the coronavirus.

“That’s when you really get a really good dose of reality that this is not just TV or make-up,” Jesse White III said. “But it’s actually real lives, real people being affected by the consequences of this disease.”

Jesse White III said he’s seen more people being carried out on transport carts than ever before.

“Once we saw as many people bringing them down and when it started to become like the normalcy of just pushing the patient through the hallway and loading them into the truck, that’s when it really set home that we really had a tough time ahead of us,” he said.

Jesse said hearing about his dad's experience helped him create the award-winning design.

He said completed the design in one day.

“It took me two hours to sketch it up. It took me one hour to fill in the lines and then it took me another two hours to color it in,” he said.

As the grand prize winner, Jesse was awarded a $100 gift card and a Chromebook.

“It feels really good to be the award winner because I had gone into it thinking like this is something that is going to be fun to do and then I won so I’m very happy,” he said.

Jesse is one of five winners in the contest. 

Four other contestants also received a Chromebook:

10-11 years-old category – Mia Mergler

12-13 years-old category – Carter Blankenship

14-15 years-old category – Sebastian Luster

16-17 years-old category – Emily Swanson