January 7, 2008....FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Person: Andi Hannah, RN
Company Name: Clark County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Coalition
Voice Phone Number: 812-283-2649
FAX Number: 812-283-2411
Email Address: andrea.hannah@clarkmemorial.org
Clarksville Community Schools to Receive Gary Sandifur Tobacco-Free School Award
Indiana Tobacco Prevention & Cessation and Clark County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Coalition Honor Clarksville Community Schools for Comprehensive Tobacco-Free Policy
Clarksville, IN - Clarksville Community Schools, for instituting a campus policy making school grounds totally smoke-free, will be honored with the Gary Sandifur Tobacco-Free School Campus Award at their school board meeting January 15, 2008 from Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation and Clark County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Coalition.
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, prohibiting tobacco use by students, school staff, parents and visitors on school property and in school vehicles. The policy must be enforced on school days and weekends, and it must encompass all events held on school property.
Lorene Sandifur, who was featured in a well-known series of statewide television advertisements telling the story of losing her husband, guided the creation of the award in order to continue delivering Gary's message on smoking and what it did to shorten his life. Gary Sandifur died of lung cancer due to smoking that had spread to his brain.
"I don't want other wives or husbands, sons and daughters to feel the pain I felt when I lost Gary," said Lorene Sandifur. "I hope to encourage people to never start smoking and those who are addicted, I encourage them to quit today."
By honoring schools with an award in his name, Lorene hopes 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 2003, 23 percent of Indiana's high school students reported using 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.
Gary, who had smoked all of his life, had promised Lorene and his family that he would quit smoking on his 50th birthday. Before turning 50, however, he began experiencing headaches and dizziness. He visited a doctor for testing, and the day before his 50th birthday, the results showed cancerous tumors in his brain. Stage Four lung cancer had spread from his lungs to his brain. Gary had promised his family he wouldn't smoke after he turned 50. He was right.
After learning he was dying of cancer, Gary started speaking to children and teenagers about the dangers of smoking. He wanted to get the message out to as many people as possible: that smoking was not worth the risk involved. Gary didn't get to finish the work he started. After living twice as long as the doctors predicted and talking to as many kids as he could, he lost his battle with cancer. But his wife, Lorene, decided to continue the work that Gary had begun.
After appearing in ITPC's series of statewide commercials where she told her and Gary's story, Lorene continues to speak to children, teenagers and adults about the harmful effects of tobacco use, helping to finish the job her husband started. The Gary Sandifur Award was created in memory and honor of Gary Sandifur and the Sandifur family, as well as the countless other Hoosier families who have been harmed by tobacco use.
Clark County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Coalition 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 Clark County, call 812-283-2649; in Floyd County, call 812-923-3400. To contact ITPC, call 317- 234-1787 or visit www.whitelies.tv or its youth movement at www.voice.tv.
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