SCAT/RAZE ANTI-SMOKING PROGRAMS HELP CALHOUN KIDS

(01/06/2004)

By Tiffany Swisher, Clarion Editor/ Elizabeth Duskey, Clarion Reporter EDITORS NOTE; This is a story produced by members of the Calhoun Clarion staff. One of the more active groups at Calhoun Middle/High School is the Student Coalition Against Tobacco or SCAT as it is called. Carlene Fredrick is the leader of SCAT/RAZE (RAZE is a statewide teen-led, teen-implemented anti-tobacco movement) for Calhoun County schools, a position she has held for the past 10 years and she says she still loves it. West Virginia is trying to get teens that are mostly in high school to quit smoking. RAZE began as a campaign developed with funding from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources - along with the Department of Education, West Virginia Youth Tobacco Prevention Campaign, the mbcgroup and American Lung Association of West Virginia - make up the Youth Empowerment Team (YET) that oversees the RAZE movement. RAZE teens fight big tobacco usage by performing commotions - teen-led protests that get noticed and get out the anti-tobacco message. RAZE merged with the West Virginia Youth Tobacco Prevention Campaign in 2002 to become a statewide anti-tobacco movement. SCAT/RAZE has been successful since it started they have had seven television commercials, two radio spots, 360 billboards, three statewide events, and 600 commotions preformed since Spring 2002. High school smoking has dropped by 20 percent and high school spit tobacco use has dropped by 25 percent since 1999. For more information on it you can visit the SCAT/RAZE website at www.scatewv.com

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