Celebrate ‘Kick Butts Day’ today

The Mat-Su Peer Helpers, Teens Against Tobacco Use and Alaska Family Services will host a Kick Butts Day open gym night beginning at 9 p.m., Friday at the AT&T Sports Center, 1507 North Double B Street, in Palmer.

The event is part of an initiative that makes kids leaders in the effort to stop youth tobacco use.

In Alaska, an estimated 14 percent of high school students smoke and more than 8 percent use smokeless tobacco, which means that in any given Alaska class of 30 high school students, four smoked a cigarette and two or three used smokeless tobacco within the last month. As part of the Kick Butts Day recognition, students in the Peer Helpers and Teens Against Tobacco Use groups at Wasilla Middle School also hosted a “Dinner of Death.” The event featured casserole dishes, salad bowls and dinner platters filled with chemicals that are found in cigarettes, such as arsenic and ammonia. For more information about the open gym night, contact Misty Jensen at 715-6316.

For more information, visit kickbuttsday.org.