News and Events

Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) in Dixie County Attend Annual Cross City Fly-In Event
Appril 24, 2021

On April 24, 2021, the Dixie County High School SWAT club and the Ruth Rains Middle School SWAT clubs set up a booth at the Cross City Fly-In, Cruise-In and Business Expo in honor of the Dixie County Centennial Celebration.  Both the SWAT Advisors and the Tobacco Prevention Specialist of Dixie County assisted in setting up the booth, but the SWAT youth spent the entire day talking to kids, youth and adults about how big tobacco and vape industries target them to become their customers for life. 

The SWAT youth were also able to present to State Representative Chuck Clemons during the event and shared their concerns with the lies from the vaping industry and how they will not be “Lab Rats” while they test their nicotine products on kids. 

Each SWAT youth was able to share with kids by having them spin a wheel with different parts of the body that is affected by tobacco use and reading off tobacco facts that tied in with the body part.  Kids and youth of all ages were very interested in how to be healthy and how to share with their family members how to stay tobacco free. 

Youth from around the county were encouraged to join SWAT and explained how they can become part of the solution with nicotine addiction.  The youth were able to touch and see the lung replicas that represented a healthy lung and a smoker’s lung.  Many adults either shared that they had seen lungs like that in their medical training or they shared how shocked they are were after seeing “Black Lung”.

 

The Fly-In was a great success with over 3,000 attendees and the Dixie County SWAT youth received complements from many of the adults that were a part of the Fly-In Committee.  They were impressed with the youth’s knowledge and the comfortable way they initiated conversations with youth and adults about the dangers of tobacco use. 

The Dixie County SWAT youth were also very thankful to the Chamber of Commerce for adopting the tobacco free event policy and almost no one was seen smoking, vaping or dipping during the event. This was a great way to show that tobacco free events are still highly attended and that the event planners care about the community’s health.