Fresh Heir Update
Hello CWYC! Your friends at Fresh Heir are currently working on volunteer recruitment and orientation in both Norfolk and Haldimand divisions. Palm cards have been split among members and sent to the area high schools with our brand new volunteer posters and applications. We’re excited about bringing new faces to the group and have a great night planned to welcome and introduce ourselves, our job, as well as the tobacco industry to our helpers.
In April we will be following up our successful Park Your Butt Blitz with a new and improved cigarette butt pickup. Last year we collected 20,000 butts in a combined time of four hours over eight townships in one day. This year’s tour will include seven stops in Haldimand-Norfolk communities (Port Dover, Simcoe, Waterford, Jarvis, Cayuga, Hagersville, and Caledonia). Our plan is to use the collected cigarette butts to construct a massive, 6 foot diameter display for Earth Day. This spectacle will be the planet earth made using the butts for continents to give a visual display of how many butts are littered. This event will be an excellent chance to involve our volunteers. It is also part of an inspiring, three-event program under the banner “Change Starts Here.” We hope that through these events we can motivate and help others notice the positive change they can easily make in their communities.
Until next time; stay tuned, and stay fresh.
DETOX’s Update
DETOX kicked off the new year in style, and shows no signs of slowing down!
HCAAT -runnin’ the gamut
Barely over 9 weeks into 2008 and so far, for HCAAT, it cannot be described in any other way except non-stop! The first order of business for the new year was a from-the-bottom-up overhaul of HCAAT’s method of operation. After redefining our focus and goals to include a solid denorm/anti-industry foundation, we were ready to start planning!
Some rapid-fire decision-making resulted in a slew of new events and campaigns for the coming months. From Pirates to Spirit Squads, our new projects are sure to run the gamut.
In addition to these new endeavors, Hamilton’s Crew has been working hard to keep up with their most recent campaign, the web-based Control YOURtube, initiated during National Non-Smoking Week. For this event, Peer leaders and volunteers having been scouring Youtube and tracking down videos containing tobacco industry product use or endorsements and then flagging them. In the comments section we have been leaving a uniform message, calling others to join our cause. Our ultimate goal is to have videos showing tobacco industry products tagged as 18+ on the site.
Around the office, our sub-committees have been busy as well. HCAAT sub-committees include the Volunteer Committee whose role is to recruit, interview, and engage new HCAAT members. The Office Logistics Crew keeps things running behind the scenes by ensuring there are office supplies, premiums to distribute and HCAAT is prepared and organized when doing presentations. The Middle School Committee is serious about middle school engagement and is planning a variety of initiatives to be shared in future blogs. Executive elections were held in February, leaving our Crew in the very capable hands of our new Chair, Katie Roessner. The position of Vice-Chair was awarded to the lovely Gagandeep Grewel and our new Secretary, the always efficient, Diana Banyasz. Matt Wheeler and Chris Mooney have assumed the positions of Print and Video Representative respectively.
We are also pleased to welcome and recognize a record number of volunteers from high schools all across Hamilton who have contributed over 180 hours so far.
March promises to be spectacular! Scheduled for the 14th, 15th and 16th, the HCAAT ‘Retreat 2008’ is the 2nd retreat of its kind bringing together a diverse group of youth and adults. This retreat presents an opportunity for HCAAT members to come together to team-build and begin planning for their annual Teen Tobacco Summit as they refine their skills as advocates and leaders. The Teen Tobacco Summit, attended by hundreds of youth annually, celebrates its eighth year this October. TTS VIII, a one day youth-led conference planned, organized and hosted by the Hamilton Crew for Action Against Tobacco (HCAAT), promises to be the best yet. Participants obtain skills, knowledge and motivation to reduce youth tobacco use by directly countering the Tobacco Industry’s target marketing to youth.
Lastly, The Crew has been hard at work on their eye-popping (to say the least) Denormee Nominations and Knowledge Transfer Booth for TakeAction…stay tuned!
REACT’s February Update
Hello everyone!! REACT’s been working hard within our community for the past few months. Recently, we have been visiting high schools across the region with the ‘Don’t Be a Number’ campaign. The purpose of this campaign is to persuade youth to not be a replacement smoker for the tobacco industry. We’ve also visited Dalewood Elementary School where we presented on the harmful effects of tobacco. Throughout National Non-Smoking Week, we set up informational booths at a local hockey arena and at the Seaway Mall in Welland. We educated the public about smoking in cars and the importance of having a smoke-free vehicle. To help communicate our message we also used a spinning wheel game that grabbed the public’s attention, especially the youth. We handed out Ontario Smoke-Free ice scrapers for those who participated in the game.
In the month of February we participated in Fit for the Future at Brock University where we also set up a display booth and created a new game, educating people about smoking in vehicles. We presented the details of our display and educated our audience on who REACT is.
Recently, our peer leaders wrote a letter to Minister’s and MP’s about contraband cigarettes. The letter encouraged the government to act on illegal cigarette manufacturers, have better security at borders, and to apply tougher penalties to prevent smuggling.
That’s all for now,
REACT
