Since the summer semester, more weekly drawings have been conducted for the University’s vaccine incentive reward program.
Starting on August 24, an undergraduate student from Virginia won the first selection of the grand prize of $4,500 dollars dedicated to their tuition and fees.
The students, who chose to not be identified publicly, said, “I got vaccinated to protect myself, my family and the entire UW community from COVID-19. The reporting process was very easy and only took about three minutes. I encourage my fellow students to get vaccinated because it has been proven to work in fighting COVID-19. The UW community will be even safer and closer to being back to normal as more students get vaccinated.”
Another student who chose not be identified won $300 dollars in the weekly cash prize drawing.
The senior from the outdoor recreation and tourism major said, “At first, I was kind of reluctant to report my vaccine, because I thought it would have taken a long time out of my day. But it turns out reporting my vaccination took no time at all. It was really easy to find; it was as simple as taking a photo on your phone.”
Since then, other students have won a variety of prizes including an “A” lot parking permit valued at $210 dollars for the year alongside other cash and material prizes.
One of the biggest prizes advertised by the University was the chance for a student and five of their friends to be selected and win a catered dinner with UW President Ed Seidel and his partner at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center.
Two students have won this prize.
Artemis Langford, a secondary education with social studies major, and Cameron Schoening, a business entrepreneurship major, won a dinner with president along with five of their friends each.
“Being in a family that has at-risk members and myself as an at-risk person, I felt that I had an obligation to get vaccinated to protect myself and others — a duty to the well-being of society. I would strongly encourage my fellow students to seek out and get vaccinated and report it,” Langford said. “I look forward to meeting President Seidel in person. I would like to ask him for advice about my future in the university and learn more about what he does.”
“I got vaccinated because I was going on a trip to Kentucky with my grandma in May, and I wanted to keep her safe from contracting COVID. I spend a considerable amount of time with my grandma, so I didn’t want to put her at risk,” Schoening said.
Prizes are still up for grabs with the final grand prize selection being scheduled for September 27.
Alongside the University’s program, Albany County officials are holding their own program that will give out a variety of cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 in cash with other prizes possible.
UW student Cole Munari from Cheyenne is the first winner in that program with a $1,000 cash prize heading their way.
Albany’s program is known as “You Call the Shots” and can be found for more information or program entering here: https://cityoflaramie.org/1185/Vaccine-Project.
The UW incentive program can be entered for students by going to the Student Health Service patient portal found here: http://patientportal.uwyo.edu. Student accounts can be accessed using regular UW ID and password and once there, students simply have to upload a photo of their completed vaccine documents to be entered.
