RRCC students promote healthy campus by picking up discarded cigarette butts
By KATIE KOLT HALL, Staff Writer
There are more butts than students at Rainy River Community College — haphazardly discarded cigarette butts, that is.
The number of butts on campus exceeds the amount of students and faculty — several times over.
A group of people at RRCC wanted to do something to clean their tobacco-free campus of the leftover filters, half-smoked cigarettes and debris, which show the work still yet to do in becoming truly tobacco free.
RRCC freshman Kelsey Fuerst was among the members of the RRCC students and faculty who participated in this year’s annual Kick Butts Day, celebrated nationwide Wednesday. The event was organized by the RRCC student senate, of which Fuerst is president, and assisted by the American Lung Association of Minnesota, which provided materials for the event.
“We wanted to get out there and be active with it and enforce it,” Fuerst said, adding that she has noticed that there are many people not following the rules.
Within about a half hour, Fuerst alone had picked up more than 600 butts, more than twice the population of the college. She said that before she began picking up the litter, she would have been surprised to find 300 butts.
The students involved in Kick Butts Day also passed out information to students, faculty and staff related to smoking; and cessation materials to current smokers. In addition, they had posters and sign-up sheets near the campus’ main entrance for people to sign that promote the tobacco-free school.
While it was a quiet event, it proved that every person can make a difference in the physical and environmental health of their community.
Signs at each entrance to the college promote the tobacco-free campus and note the smoking restrictions within the school property. But students and faculty note that it is not uncommon to find rule breakers — as was evident by the number of cigarette butts collected on campus. Ironically, butts were found only inches from the signs noting the restrictions.
The RRCC campus has been tobacco-free since 2008. Smoking is only permitted in private vehicles while on campus or at Rainy Hall residences. On March 17, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities passed a resolution encouraging each college and university to consult with students, faculty and staff about further restricting tobacco use on campuses.
Sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Kick Butts Day is an annual celebration of youth leadership and activism in the fight against tobacco use. More than 1,000 events were planned in all 50 states.
