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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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