The Salt Lake Community College Health and Wellness Services joined forces with the Student Health Advisory Club to hold Health and Wellness’ Annual Great American Smokeout on November 8, 2011.
The goals of this event were to raise awareness about the perils of smoking, encourage smokers to quit- even for just the day of the event, and teach students tips to help a friend quit. Health and Wellness wanted to get 18 current smokers to commit to a program that assists those trying to quit.
“Thirty smokers visited the station to sign up. Five committed and signed up for the program, and the remaining twenty-five took information about the program and said they would use the source when they were ready to quit,” says Health Promotion Program Manager Tatiana Burton.
The Health and Wellness services wanted to teach students tips to help a friend quit because they have found it might be the trigger many smokers are looking for to help them quit.
“[Smokers] have wanted to quit, but didn’t have a reason, or no one had asked them to quit,” says Burton.
Activities at the event included making “death masks” to be shown at One Good Reason’s Death Mask Gallery event taking place on Thanksgiving weekend, taking a smoking facts questionnaire, a breathing activity to understand a smoker’s breathing difficulties, education about the way that tobacco is marketed and the health effects of tobacco and its use.
Taylor Burton won the round of Smoke Out Jeopardy and received an iPod.
In past years around 40 students have attended the event, but this year around 75 students attended the event. Health and Wellness is hoping for similar turnouts for all of their monthly events.
