Rainy River Community College students on Wednesday collectively kicked a fake cigarette butt made out of a “pool floatie” as part of the region’s Kick Butts Day.
“It’s basically to encourage people to quit smoking,” said Jack Bragg, president of the college’s Student Senate, which organized the event held in the gym.
The day marked the same event at six other college campuses across northeastern Minnesota. Each year, the American Lung Association in Minnesota encourages the event and provides resources for quitting smoking; this year marked the 17th annual Kick Butts Day.
“College-age students, 18-to-24-year-olds, not only have the highest smoking rates, but are also highly targeted by the tobacco industry,” said Jodi Tervo, program manager for the association’s tobacco prevention and control department, based in Duluth. “On the college campuses across northeast Minnesota, Kick Butts Day was a day to promote cessation, and to promote resources to quit, along with promoting tobacco-free campuses.”
RRCC is a tobacco-free campus, and students at the college also participated in the event’s dorm door decorating contest. Dorm rooms were decorated showing the impacts of tobacco, and doors were judged Wednesday.
According to Tervo, the Surgeon General reports “more than a million dollars an hour is spent to market tobacco products to this country.”
The state’s American Lung Association is teaming up with the State Health Improvement Program to raise awareness about services on college campuses to help with quitting smoking.
