TOLEDO, Ohio — Thirty students in Ohio now have $10,000 more to put toward their schooling.
It's part of the Vax-2-School sweepstakes, which gives incentives to the younger crowd for getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
"My mom saw it on Instagram and called me immediately. We both were freaking out obviously because it's a big wad of money," said Midori Ayres, a freshman at the University of Toledo.
Ayres and Rossford High School Freshman Alex Vargo are two of those 30 Vax-2-School winners. The $10,000 scholarship came as a shock to both families.
"I never thought it would happen. It's all Ohio you know. And so, I just did it just because, but I'm pretty excited. Little old Rossford," said Kristen Vargo, the mother of Alex.
"I had no clue," Alex said.
The campaign aims to encourage Ohio's youth to be vaccinated, but Alex says he got the shot to ensure he could play sports.
And Midori says she did it to keep her family safe.
"It's very helpful, honestly," she said. "It's like a little reward for getting vaccinated. Doing your part against the pandemic. Then it's also really nice to be able to take that. It's a large sum of money off of tuition to not have to worry about paying it back."
"It's a cool opportunity to get money to go to college. Because I mean, I've always thought about how I would pay for college," added Alex.
Both students have different aspirations.
"I'm majoring in chemical engineering because it was a very cushy major," said Ayres.
"The thing I'm mostly thinking about for college is astronomy because I've always been interested in space," added Alex.
Kristen says it should be up to the youth if they want to be vaccinated or not, but it was an important conversation she had with her son.
"I thought it was a good idea because honestly if it encourages people who are on the fence to get vaccinated, then more power to them," Kristen said. "Because the money is gonna help you no matter what."
The final entry deadline is this coming Wednesday for the grand prize drawings and winners will be announced every day this week until Friday.
You can visit the Ohio Department of Health website to see a full list of Monday's winners.