Every day thousands of kids smoke their first cigarette and hundreds more get hooked. To help ensure none of those kids are from southeast Kansas, Thrive Allen County is spending $10,000 on student-led tobacco prevention campaigns.
Allen County’s three unified school districts and Allen County Community College received a $2,500 grant from Thrive. With the money, area students are developing what Thrive and school officials hope will be innovative, cutting-edge tobacco prevention campaigns to curb their peers’ tobacco use.
“The whole goal is to get people not to use tobacco because that prevents a lot of chronic diseases,” said Sunny Shreeve, program director for Thrive.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, each day in the United States about 3,400 kids between the ages of 12 and 17 smoke their first cigarette and 850 of their peers get hooked, so it only makes sense for Thrive, Shreeve said, to facilitate a program to curb tobacco use in Allen County.
Because a stipulation of the grant funds requires the tobacco prevention campaigns be student led, students, faculty and district administrations are confident the $10,000 will have a big impact.
“Telling kids not to smoke, when it’s from the kids as opposed to adults, it comes across better,” said Craig Smith, Humboldt High School principal. “We have had initiatives like this before … that were teacher and faculty â¨driven, so it’s good to try something different.”
Because the money, provided to Thrive through the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City, is still being granted to the schools, students at the county schools have yet to solidify concepts for their campaigns; however, Shreeve pointed the “Truth” campaign, the largest youth smoking prevention campaign in the country known for its “in-your-face” television commercials, as a possible example of what might be in store – but on a smaller scale.
Research says the blunt approach to anti-tobacco education pays dividends. According to an article in the American Journal of Public Health titled “Getting to the Truth: Evaluating National Tobacco Countermarketing Campaigns,” as many as 26 percent more youths held anti-tobacco attitudes and beliefs after being exposed to the “Truth” campaign.
“Now’s the time to educate them,” Smith said.
Kelsey Vest, a Marmaton Valley High senior and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America president, said although everyone is aware of the dangers of smoking, presenting the facts in a way that can’t be ignored is key, especially if their peers and parents already smoke.
“Just because your parents do it doesn’t mean it’s OK,” she said. “There’s a big risk factor to using tobacco.”
Smith said Humboldt’s FCCLA students will also lead USD 258’s prevention campaign.
All schools involved have until Dec. 31 to develop a program and exhaust the funds.
Area students lead, create tobacco prevention campaigns
