January 18, 2010

Message Delivered: Youth take stand against tobacco

By Tracy Buffington

Armed with spray bottles filled with colored water, about a dozen youth set out to leave a message.

Members of No Limits-Nebraska’s youth board left a temporary billboard on a snow bank facing the Clemmons Park sledding hill on Saturday.

“All the kids involved in the project wanted to spread a message,” said Alena Hejl of Lincoln, co-chairperson of the youth board.

No Limits-Nebraska is a youth led and driven tobacco prevention movement. The aim is to fight back against the tobacco industry’s marketing, which they said targets youth.

“We’re sick of hearing tobacco companies saying they’re doing good work,” Hejl said. “We want to see some real change.”

Project coordinator Amanda Mortensen said the tobacco industry spends about $72.1 million in advertising in Nebraska each year. Every day almost seven people in the state die from smoking-related illnesses, she said.

Members of No Limits’ youth board meet quarterly. During each meeting, they try to complete one activism event.

In the past, that has included being human billboards, Mortensen said.

Other activities have included camps were about 150 people attended.

By the time they were done, this weekend’s temporary billboard read: “We really need something to die of. 7 Nebraskans die every day from tobacco.” The message did survive through the weekend.

During the past weekend, the youth board held its meeting at Camp Rivercrest south of Fremont. While there are board members from across the state, there are none from Dodge County.

No Limited began in the fall of 2001 as Teen FYI as a youth movement to discuss how tobacco was affecting Nebraska and what could be done about it.

The project is funded through Tobaacco Free Nebraska, a program of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Funding comes through the settlement the tobacco industry paid to end a lawsuit filed by 46 states, including Nebraska.

Information about No Limits-Nebraska can be found at www.nolimitsnebraska.com.

See the entire article at: FremontTribune.com