Kids ‘Kick Butts’ with anti-tobacco campaign

WILMINGTON — Wilmington students are joining kids across the nation to take a stand against tobacco. They’re doing it with one message: “kick butts.”

Kick Butts Day is a national campaign to get kids not to use tobacco. According to the American Lung Association, one out of 52 people die every day in North Carolina from tobacco use alone.

So in six local high schools and middle schools, 52 students wore their anti-smoking message on T-shirts and handed out information on tobacco use to other students.

Christine Freaney is the project’s assistant coordinator. She said, “People have their first cigarette between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, so it’s very important that we get into the schools and get to the kids before they even try, it’s a lot easier to quit something if you never even tried.”

Myrtle Grove sixth-grader Alex Willcox said, “If you learned in middle school that you shouldn’t smoke there is a better risk of you not smoking when you get older, and there is less chance of you dying from smoking or something.”

It’s just one more way to empower kids to say no.