Thursday, June 28, 6:10 p.m.
By Andy Hirsch
Selinsgrove has decided to ban smoking in the borough´s parks after council was approached by a group called Teens Against Tobacco or T.A.T. It´s made up of sever high school students.
"I think it´s good. I don´t think (kids) should be around the smoke and I don´t like to be around the smoke. I have allergies so I can´t stand the smoke," Heather Tittle said. She was at Kidsgrove with her young son and two nephews Thursday.
Nicole Raker and Matt Edmiston are two of the students who helped pass the ban.
"I just don´t really like that felling of going some place and just leaving knowing I smell really bad and knowing I breathed all that gunk in," Raker said about why she joined T.A.T. to begin with.
The two teens want people to know the ban isn´t an attack on smokers.
"It´s not against smokers, it´s for the health of the kids," Edmiston said. "They can do it off these grounds."
The two agreed that parks were an obvious place for T.A.T. to start with a smoking ban but they´re not done. The group wants other places to go tobacco free. Their next target is an area bowling alley.
"We are actually working on that right now. They decided that they wanted to go smoke free so we´re helping them out, getting everything smoke free so everybody can go bowling and not leave smelling like smoke," Raker explained.
Megan Will is the youth program coordinator at Clinical Outcomes Group, Inc. It´s a non-profit organization aimed at making communities healthier. It lends support to T.A.T. but Will said the students are the ones who made the ban a reality.
"These kids are taking a step forward and saying ´you know what? I care about my community, I care about the kids, the younger ones.´ And so they step up and make a difference," Will said.
The tobacco ban isn´t a law but more of a rule the borough is trying to get people to follow.
To help spread the word there will be a celebration at Kidsgrove in Selinsgrove Friday night at 7:00 p.m.
There will be a movie, activities and snacks. It will be free to the public.
