Foundation grants fight teen tobacco use

Thu, Feb 7, 2008    to del.icio.us

HOLLAND — The Grand Haven Community Foundation and the Holland/Zeeland Area Community Foundation have given a combined $13,050 grant to Smoke-Free Ottawa for a new campaign aimed at preventing tobacco use among teens.

The "Screen Out" campaign will advertise against tobacco use at movie theaters before films that contain smoking, because studies archived at www.smokefremovies.ucsf.edu show that teens that have watched the most smoking in movies are up to three times more likely to smoke.

The second part of the campaign is a contest in which local high school students will compete to produce 30-second anti-tobacco public service announcements around the theme, "They put WHAT in a cigarette?"

Any Ottawa County high school that has, or is willing to implement, a tobacco-free campus policy can form teams of five students for the contest.

Winning productions will be submitted to area television outlets and run in local theaters in June. Prizes will be awarded to the school and the members of the first- and second-place teams.

For more information or to enter a team, contact Smoke-Free Ottawa members Tasha Bourne at (616) 886-8871 or Bill Wright at (616) 752-5051.