YMCA Kids Celebrate National Kick Butts Day

Today, March 16, is National Kick Butts Day. In celebration, the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council for the Concho Valley teamed up with the San Angelo YMCA to educate the youth about the harm of cigarettes. To help educate kids, a short presentation was held as well as a kickball tournament.

On Kick Butts Day, kids demand that tobacco companies stop marketing deadly products to them and encourage elected officials to help reduce youth tobacco use.

Chelsea Ashton, prevention coordinator, said, “Today, we are celebrating Kick Butts Day, which is part of Tobacco Kid Free Day. The kids will be getting some education about tobacco that’s age appropriate, of course, because we have kids here from kindergarten to fifth grade.”

Dustin Estes is the assistant child care director for the YMCA. He said, “Today we want to educate our kids about tobacco and make sure they won’t do it. They can even educate their parents about it and make sure they don’t do it.”

About 90 kids from the YMCA camp participated in today's activities overall.

Ashton continued, “We want to talk to the kids about how tobacco can affect their body and about how to keep themselves safe if they are around an adult who’s choosing to use tobacco. We also want to talk to them about making healthy choices, so the second half of the presentation is a kickball tournament. That’s what we would refer to as an alternate activity.”

The children at the YMCA were split into four groups for the activities today, and the groups were named after colors: blue, green, yellow and purple.

The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council also had three spokes people talk to the blue and green groups. Julianna, Maggie and Ray gave a child-friendly presentation about the dangers of tobacco.

Julianna began by doing a question and answer portion with the kids. She asked the following questions: “How many of you know someone who smokes cigarettes? Do any of you know how many chemicals are in one cigarette? What body part do you use to breathe with that tobacco could hurt?”

 All of the children participating gave every answer that popped into their heads.

After the questionnaire, Julianna and Maggie brought out a trash can that contained cards in them. The cards were labeled and had drawings of some of the chemicals in cigarettes that the children could identify.

The kids were chosen one at a time to come to the front and pick a random card from the trash can.

The chemicals the spokes people introduced to the kids were ammonia, candle wax, battery acid, arsenic poison, nicotine, insecticide, butane, paint and toluene.

Overall, because of these educational presentations, the consumption of tobacco among youths has declined. Ashton said, “We love the fact that we have seen a decline in tobacco use among our young people over the last five years. We have continued to do a lot of educating with kids, and now, adults are becoming more aware of how to talk to their kids about tobacco.”

To end the presentation, the kids viewed a singing video that showed them "smoking stinks."

To end the day, the kids played against each other in a kickball tournament. As the game went on, the counselors even began playing and running around.

Estes said, “All that we ask the public to know is that we are trying to make America a safer place and San Angelo a better place to live.”