Lackawanna County World No Tobacco Day

In honor of World No Tobacco Day 2010, the Power of Ten members in Lackawanna County put on a display at the county courthouse square in Scranton, Pennsylvania with the help of advisors and a guest presenter.  The presenter, Tony Delonti from the American Lung Association, brought displays such as a smoker’s lung in a jar and a tri-fold board filled with pictures of iconic people that have died from a tobacco-related disease. Our group set up another table with brochures on how to stop smoking, the dangers and effects of smoking, and how tobacco targets youth (just to name a few). On this table we also had a healthy pig lung and one that represented that of a smoker. At this exhibit, onlookers had the opportunity to pump air into the lungs to simulate how a smoker’s lung loses elasticity and becomes harder to breathe with. In between these two exhibits, we set up luminaries that represented the tobacco related deaths that occur in Pennsylvania daily. Some members of our group also walked around the area and picked up all the cigarette butts lying around that they could find. The amount of cigarette butts they found in just this small area nearly filled a large bag.

Overall, I think the event has been our best yet for World No Tobacco Day and I am hoping to make next year’s even bigger and better. I am a big believer in making a difference in at least one person’s life. At this particular event, a man came to our exhibit to really learn—not for the lollipops, or a t-shirt, or to mock us, but to learn. He left our display saying that it was a great thing that we were getting this message out there and that right then and there he was going to stop smoking because he couldn’t believe the unseen toll it was taking on his health. He was the one person of the day that I KNOW we influenced and I hope others thought twice about using tobacco products after seeing us also. I was extremely happy with the outcome and the publicity the event got. I think we did an excellent job at conveying our message and doing our part in the community for World No Tobacco Day. Next year, I hope to attract more people and get more involved, but this year was a great success!

By Ashley Blasi, Abington Heights '11