“I like sniffing butts, not eating them” – Guelph dog
SWAT completed one of its goals for 2008 when we finished the last of four butt-litter clean ups in well known Guelph parks. Pick ups at Riverside Park and Marrianes Park were particularly successful, with us collecting tons of cigarette butts and giving out SWAG to park goers, and educating a dog-walker or two about the dangers of butt litter. We received a lot of media for out pick ups including radio, newspapers and we were even interviewed by Rogers TV!
We had tons of support, even from our four legged friends, check out the photos!
Edu-Chalking (Education Through Chalking)
At a local high school SWAT organized a chalking event to raise awareness among teenagers about the dangers of tobacco industry products. Even though we had to wash away our artwork the next day, the messages reached almost all of the students, teachers, and staff at the school, as well the parents who were there that evening for the parent-teacher interview night. Check out the photos to see some of our artwork!
Christmas Parade In Burlington
On Sunday December 7th Crave participated in Burlington’s Annual Santa Claus Parade. It was really chilly, but we had fun. Crave sang Holiday songs to spread some more Holiday cheer to all those who came. We also shared our key messages with them and let them know how to get more information about us by visiting our website cravethetruth.ca. Overall it was an awsome and jolly day and we were happy to see all who came out, and for all who learned a little more about Crave this Holiday Season. Happy Holidays!
Whats New With Crave this November;
On Friday November 7th 2008 Crave launched the tobacco free sports tool kit. We launched it at the Oakville YMCA. We invited many representatives from the Halton Regional Health Department as well as students who are highly involved with their athletic councils. Chelsea and Danielle gave a presentation on Crave’s successful tobacco free sports event. Kendra, a representative from the Halton Region walked everyone through the tool kit explaining in depth how it is to be used. After we finished up our launch Larissa came in to train us on Creative Ways to Advocate. It was a very useful training and we will use it in the future.
On Sunday December 7th 2008 crave will be participating in Burlington’s Santa Claus Parade. We will be sharing our key messages; “The chimney should be the only thing smoking around the children this holiday season”. As well as wishing everyone happy holidays from Crave.
Here are the songs that were on the CD we made for everyone at Teen Ranch;
DISC ONE:
What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
Hey Jude - The Beatles
Warning Sign Coldplay
Good People - Jack Johnson
Fix You - Coldplay
So Damn Lucky - Dave Matthews
I Want You to Want Me - Cheap Trick
Runnin’ Down a Dream - Tom Petty
Get Back - The Beatles
Trampled Under Foot - Led Zeppelin
Things Have Changed - Bob Dylan Dylan Folk
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
You’ve Got to Stand for Something – Aaron Tippin
Some Country
Love Story - Taylor Swift
DISC TWO:
Troublemaker Weezer
Banquet Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Neighborhood #3 - Arcade Fire Funeral
Paper Planes - M.I.A
Just Dance - Lady GaGa & Colby O’Donis
Don’t Stop the Music - Rihanna
The Way I Are (feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E.) - Timbaland
Viva La Vida – Coldplay
Love Lockdown - Kanye
Beat Goes On - Madonna Feat
Live Your Life (feat. Rihanna) – T.I.
So What - P!nk
Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
No Air - Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
Space Bird (Dubfire Deep Space Remix) - System 7 Space Bird
Crave’s Tobacco Free Sports Tournament
On September 13th and 14th crave participated in the Oakville Soccer Cup running a tobacco free sports event. We partnered with the Oakville soccer club creating a positive ally. It was a boys and girl’s youth end of the year tournament. We set up our booth in the front entrance of the main field. There many youth there along with their parents and siblings. We handed out promotional items such as; mini soccer balls, puzzles and frisbees. As well we asked youth over the age of thirteen and there parents to fill out a community readiness survey in order to gage how supportive they were of the issue of tobacco use in sports and recreation. In return for filling out a community readiness survey we gave parents and youth thunder sticks and t-shirts displaying our key messages. A few of our key messages for this event were “Don’t fall for the tobacco industries trick plays” as well as “Tobacco free sports is another piece of protective equipment.” Our key messages were developed through the Central West Youth Coalition as this was a central west wide event. That means that groups like crave from across central western Ontario held events like ours. This was a very successful event and we hope to partner with the Oakville Soccer club on more activities in the future.
chelsea and alex.
Great Wolf Lodge Update
On October 17th Crave Travelled to Great Wolf Logde and met up with many other YAA’s from across Central West. We spent the weekend learning many new ways to advocate. New peer leaders started to learn about the tactics and manipulations used by the Tobacco Industry. As well they learned creative ways to communicate with others such as petitions and letters. The second and third years brushed up on these concepts while applying new language, such as social tobacco industry denormalization and refreshing the steps to action planning. A few trips to the water park later and it was time to head home. Overall it was an awsome weekend full of new knowledge and fun.
Tales of Fresh Heir’s Epic Journeys
On April 12th, Fresh Heir and a team of nine dedicated volunteers travelled to eight destinations across Haldimand-Norfolk County. They battled through the frigid weather, determined to reach their goal of picking up 30,000 cigarette butts off the local parks, streets and beaches. The wind howled and the temperatures dropped to an unbearable low, but the team of youth diligently worked throughout the day. Tired and weak, they travelled in caravan on the long ride back to the Health Unit while the totals were being calculated. Despite their fatigue, there was a nervous air of anticipation as they waited for the results. Would their goal be reached? Would their hard work pay off? The calculator cleared his throat:
” The total number of cigarette butts that Fresh Heir and loyal volunteers have collected from Haldimand-Norfolk, as an attempt to raise awareness about the environmental effects that the 4.5 trillion cigarette butts littered worldwide have every year, to coincide with Earth Day and to improve the overall health of our community is . . .
37,156!”.
Gasps and awes poured from the mouths of the weary workers. They had done it!
The Peer Leaders turned to their tireless volunteers and flooded them with a sea of congratulations. Fresh Heir was so proud of their young recruits that they invited them to join regular meetings to aid in brainstorming and event planning. The volunteers were so satisfied with their latest accomplishment that they continue to remain involved in Fresh Heir’s journey to this day.
To be continued…
Crave – Busy of Late
Hey everyone in the CWYC. We have been very busy lately doing some awesome and unique events in our community.
On March 26, 2008, Crave took to the ice at Joshua’s Creek Arena in Oakville, partnering with the Oakville Blades and the Halton Council on Smoking or Health. Our goal was to raise awareness of the province-wide Powerwall ban that comes into effect on May 31, 2008. Armed with pucks and hockey sticks, Peer Leader Marc Dales and volunteer Lucas Shoenfeldt took shots at a mock Powerwall, symbolically showing that youth have the power to fight big tobacco.
On Saturday April 5th, 2008, Crave recreated the Grave Reality tomb stones event from 2007 to illustrate the number of people that die in different countries each day because of Tobacco Industry Products. We used this event to spread this message and further introduce ourselves to the Milton community. Overall it was highly successful and many community members and youth signed the graffiti wall to share their thoughts on the tobacco industry.
On Saturday April 19th 2008, Crave participated in the annual World Wildlife Fund CN Tower climb to raise awareness about the negative effects of tobacco industry products on the environment. Consider the following facts:
- One in five items littered is a cigarette butt
- 600 million trees are destroyed annually just to dry tobacco
- On average, a tree is cut down to roll and package every 300 cigarettes.
To get to the top of the CN Tower, you must first make it up the 1174 steps which translates to 144 flights of stairs. Our times ranged from 16 minutes to 50 minutes, but we were happy that our entire group of 20 peer leaders made it up to the top. This was a fund raising event for the World Wildlife Foundation and we are proud to have raised $1735 over all for a good cause.
On April 24th, Crave participated in the ‘Choice is Yours’ conference which was held at the Meeting House in Oakville. This conference was run by High School Students in Halton Region and focuses on educating teens about safer partying. Crave had a presentation relating to the themes of the conference – Be Informed, Protect Your Friends, and Make Your Own Decisions – which we related back to the tobacco industry and how it targets youth. We had a great turnout and lots of youth participated in the event.
We are looking forward to catching up with most of you at Take Action!
By: Marc Dales
Crave – February we hardly knew you
Crave was very busy this February planning our Valentine’s Day event. We took our key messages to EC Drury High School in Milton, Iroquois Ridge in Oakville, Christ the King in Georgetown and Robert Bateman in Burlington. Crave put up posters in schools comparing candy sticks to cigarettes and said, “The tobacco industry starts recruiting at a young age. Does this leave you broken-hearted?” On February 14, Crave members set up booths in their schools and inviting youth to sign pledges stating that they would not “give their hearts away” to the tobacco industry. We received hundreds of signatures from youth who planned to adamantly oppose the tobacco industry’s marketing practices. At Robert Bateman, our peer leaders counted over 175 pledges! Despite some obstacles, our event was a huge success.
Peer Leaders also took the OTRU online course. They received certification after passing a test trying their knowledge of the course material. We feel a whole lot smarter now!
For the Take!Action Conference, Crave has planned an awesome photo shoot that will take place next week. We won’t tell you too much…all we can say is that it’ll be an exciting experience for those involved. Andrei, one of our Peer Leaders, attended the planning weekend in February for the Conference and had a great time. We’re all looking forward to it in May!
Crave has also began planning for some amazing April events – Kick Butts Day and a ‘party in the right spirit’ youth workshop in Oakville called ‘The Choice Is Yours Conference’.
March was full of time off of work with March Break and Easter. We are working with the Halton Council on Smoking or Health to do a Hockey Powerwall event with the OTN. Look for a full report of that in our next post! Oh and Happy Birthday to our Youth Advisor Dan – he turned 27 years young in March!
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.
