Students Send Strong Message 
for the Great American Smokeout

In honor of The Great American Smokeout on November 18, 2004, students at Ridley and Penncrest High Schools wanted their classmates to think before they smoked.  They accomplished this in two very different and impactful ways.

 Ridley High School’s BUSTED! members let their peers know they were being targeted by tobacco companies as they manned a table at all four lunches and handed out 1,200 Twizzlers with a red target listing a  tobacco fact or industry quote on the back.  A quote from Lorrillard, makers of Newport cigarettes, read,

“The base of our business is the high school student.”  The number of Twizzlers represented the 1,200 Americans who die daily from tobacco-related illnesses.  The message was heard as hundreds of students took Twizzlers and read the facts!

 Penncrest High School’s S.A.D.D. members and teachers also wanted their peers and students to have the facts, and did this with t-shirts.  Teachers and S.A.D.D. members wore t-shirts with various tobacco facts and industry quotes on the back.  Students were educated and awareness was raised as they read the facts and quotes every time their teachers turned around! Additionally, students hung a banner in the cafeteria imprinted with 1,200 red handprints and the message, “1,200 Americans die every day from tobacco.”

BUSTED! groups are coordinated by Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems, with funding from the Delaware County Office of Behavioral Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. To learn more, call Jessica Scott at 484-444-0412 or jscott@holcombbhs.org.  

S.A.D.D. members at The Country Day School of the Sacred Heart want their peers and students in the younger grades to know the devastating effects of tobacco use. 

In honor of the Great American Smokeout, students darkened the cathedral-like windows of their school with black crosses numbered 1-1,200 to signify the number of Americans who die every day from tobacco related illness.  Students hung 133 crosses per each class period, and hung the final 133 at an assembly where S.A.D.D.    members spoke to the 7th -12th grade student body about the dangers of smoking, as well as the many ways the tobacco industry targets them to begin smoking. 

This event was sponsored by Delaware County BUSTED! whose groups are coordinated by Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems, with funding from the Delaware County Office of Behavioral Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.