FUN TO BE TOBACCO FREE AT COAST

Speaker Robb Holladay talks about the dangers of vaping. PHOTO BYWILLIAM SNOWDEN


The SWAT Team: Christina Martin, Kayleen Pafford, Amanda West, Haley Carlton, Liz Neighbors, and Lauren Rivers.


Jason Dyer, Autumn Meher and Lilly Carlsward.


Students practice putting out fires from unattended burning cigarettes.

Story & Photos By LINDA ANN McDONALD Sun Correspondent
 
COAST Charter School hosted Florida Department of Health- Wakulla’s Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) 2023 event on Friday, May 5th in St. Marks. The event included guest speaker Robb Holladay along with several interactive learning stations. 78 students were present for the event.
Robb Holladay is an award-winning speaker for teens, teachers, and parents. He combines humor, inspiration, and practical strategies that inspire change. Holladay empowers students by encouraging kids to take themselves to the next level.  Promoting the dangers of vaping is a passion of Holladay.
Fun activities such as Extinguish The Flames, Blindfolded Taste Test, Weighed-Down Relay and Put on Your Face were events enjoyed by both students and COAST staff.  
Extinguish the Flames is a game that promotes the fact that more than a quarter of fire related deaths in our country are due to fires caused by smoking.  Students were competing to fill a bucket up with water from large water guns from a distance to win the event.
In the Blindfolded Taste Test, students experienced what it is to have dulled taste which makes food less palatable.  While blindfolded and pinching their nose closed, students had to guess what flavored water they were sampling.
Physical fitness levels are reduced due to smoking- less oxygen is in your heart, lungs and muscles.  Two teams of students faced off in a relay, one of which was burdened down with extra weight either by a weighted vest or handheld weights.  DOH-Wakulla SWAT staff proved that life would be weighed down because of smoking.
Put on Your Face was a hands-on activity promoting the fact smoking can cause serious eye conditions that can cause vision loss or blindness.  Students had to sit behind felt boards blindfolded and try to adhere objects in the shape of eyes, nose, and mouth to the felt boards.  After viewing the felt board holding the misconfigured faces created due to being blindfolded, the children were convinced of the dangers of tobacco.
After learning the dangers of smoking, children took pledges to avoid tobacco use and were awarded certificates for their oaths to make healthy choices. Liz Neighbors, DOH-Wakulla’s Tobacco Prevention Program Manager said, “SWAT students are advocates in their own school and they partner with DOH-Wakulla to educate their peers in effort to prevent a lifelong addiction to tobacco.”
Coast Principal, Jeffrey LaChapelle said, “This event will open the eyes of students to the dangers of cigarettes, vaping and drugs- I hope this shocks them and impacts them for a lifetime.”  LaChapelle continued to say, “I have seen previous students of mine that has completed the SWAT pledges to remain tobacco free and attended the motivational speeches who are still tobacco free years later; hopefully the generational gap will close and our generation and their generation, and students no longer use tobacco.”
Jean Taylor, also of COAST Charter School said, “I am impressed with how much thought and effort has been put into this event, to make the kids interested it takes a lot, this is definitely a great event that drives the point home.”
“I enjoy supporting this event because I am an ex-smoker of many years, I do not want to see children getting hooked on tobacco,” said Jamie Pontones of COAST who assisted in the activities.
The event concluded with Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office providing hot dogs for lunch along with a kick ball game between COAST staff,  DOH-Wakulla Staff and COASTs 8th grade students in which the students took home the win. The kickball game is to promote the fact that “you can have fun without dangerous chemical addictive use”, as Liz Neighbors stated.
COAST’s music and art teacher Zach McAlpin said, “I love the idea of this event deterring students from using tobacco especially when today’s social media portrays tobacco as an enjoyable pleasure.” Zach continued with, “This event exposes the truth about vaping and shows the students the lethal dangers they are exposing themselves to if they make bad choices.”