Youth of Carter County will be encouraged to kick some “butts” during the month of March, along with others all across the country.
The Carter County Health Department (CCHD) is hosting a specialized Kick Butts Day kickball tournament on Saturday, March 11, at the Elizabethton Parks and Recreation complex with a 10 a.m. start time set. Saturday’s event is held in conjunction with Kick Butts Day, a national day of activism that was created to empower youth across the country to stand out, speak up and seize control against “Big Tobacco.”
According to the Kick Butts Day website, the day, which is scheduled for March 15, is used by youth leaders and health advocates to organize events to raise awareness of tobacco use in their state or community, encourage youth to reject the tobacco industry’s “deceptive marketing” and stay tobacco-free and urge elected official to take action to protect kids from tobacco.
The kickball tournament is open to youth ages 12 to 18 years old with a single elimination format. Teams must have up to 10 players and registration, which is free, will be held until Monday, March 6. Interested participants have two ways of signing up, either by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/r/32HBCWS online or filling out a registration form and submitting it to the health department to either Jilian Reece or Allison Foster during office hours.
Tobacco prevention has revamped across the state over the years with more programs being implemented to help provide information. Carter County has reaped the rewards with a handful of students being part of the FACT Summit — Tennessee’s first-ever statewide youth tobacco prevention conference that featured over 400 teens from 50 counties — in June. Local student Pate Anglin is serving as a FACT Summit ambassador for the state.
County FACT teens, who are no strangers to being busy, will be on hand for the all-day event. Since attending June’s FACT Summit, the teens have participated in a multitude of projects, including having their peers sign pledges to remain tobacco free, work with the “I’m not a replacement” campaign, sponsoring a teen hang out night at the Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition Youth Opportunity Center and the “Starters Never Start” campaign with Elizabethton High School — where the students worked with a professional photographer to have images of high school athletes used as banners that will be donned inside the high school and elementary schools.
“I can’t say enough about our FACT Summit teens,” Reece recently told the Elizabethton Star.
The FACT Summit teens will be attending the upcoming Carter County Community Advisory Board meeting on Thursday, March 2, to talk with community members and the public is encouraged to hear the members speak. The meeting is scheduled to take place at noon at the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library.