Duneland School Corporation to Receive Gary Sandifur Tobacco-Free School Award

On Monday, December 14, 2009 Duneland School Corporation will be honored with the Gary Sandifur Tobacco Free School Campus Award for instituting a campus policy making school grounds totally tobacco-free. This award will be presented by the Tobacco Education & Prevention Coalition for Porter County and the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation.

The Gary Sandifur Award, honoring a Kokomo, Indiana, man who was a life-long smoker and died at age fifty, is awarded exclusively to schools that enact comprehensive tobacco-control policies. The policy must be enforced on school days and weekends, and it must encompass all events held on school property.

By honoring schools with an award in Gary Sandifur’s name, the hope is to spread his message to our most vulnerable population for tobacco initiation - youth. An estimated 19,600 Hoosier children under age 18 become daily smokers each year, and in 2006, 18.3 percent of Indiana's high school students reported regular use of tobacco.

Through comprehensive tobacco-free school campus policies, students cannot smoke on school grounds or in their cars, and more importantly, parents and teachers cannot smoke in front of impressionable youth on school grounds, setting a clear example and giving a consistent message that tobacco use is a life-threatening addiction.

Tobacco Education & Prevention Coalition for Porter County is comprised of a variety of individuals, business and community organizations that are dedicated to reducing tobacco dependency, exposure to secondhand smoke, and youth initiation of smoking. They are funded by Master Settlement Agreement monies granted by Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation (ITPC), Indiana's agency charged by statute with management of the state's tobacco control programs. For more information in Porter County, call 219-464-5480.

Tobacco Education & Prevention Coalition for Porter Co.
Phone: 219-464-5480
Fax: 219-464-5425
Cell: 219-241-2014 Susan.Gleason@valpo.edu
Website: www.valpo.edu/tepc
Blog: http://blogs.valpo.edu/icanquit/
Indiana QuitLine: 1-800-Quit-Now