Thanks for support

To the editor:

Alaska Family Services Tobacco Prevention and Control would like to thank the Alaska State Fair for allowing us to erect a display on the fairgrounds in conjunction with its Healthy Living Day on Aug. 31. The display, which filled the lawn and ran the length of the Farm Exhibits building, featured 1,200 paper-people cutouts on 3-foot stakes. The cutouts represented the 1,200 Americans who die of a tobacco-related illness each day. Our display enjoyed maximum visibility thanks to the prime location we were granted and the logistical support provided by Roxie Mayberry, the fair’s associate director of Corporate Partnerships.

We’d also like to thank the army of youth volunteers from Boys and Girls Club, Mat-Su Teens Against Tobacco Use, ROSA House, Dorothy Saxton Youth Shelter and the COYOTE (Court Ordered Youth Offender Tobacco Education) Program, which spent countless hours this summer cutting out the figures for the display, as well as the busload of students from the Alaska Job Corps Center that helped drive the 1,200 staked figures into the ground. In addition, we’d like to thank Mark Stoppa for picking up the lumber used to make the stakes and John Wilber for the time and energy he spent cutting the stakes.

And finally, we’d like to thank the businesses and organizations that provided the funding, donations and discounts that made our display possible, including the Alaska Tobacco Advocacy Initiative, Learning Essentials, Purely Alaskan Water, and the Palmer UPS Store.

Together, the support and cooperation of these businesses, organizations and individuals made our display a success and helped us raise awareness about tobacco’s deadly toll.

Becky Stoppa,

program coordinator

Alaska Family Services Tobacco Prevention and Control