Opening comments by Mallory Sinner

[November 22, 2013]  Thursday at noon, the city of Lincoln and the Logan County Department of Public Health hosted a dedication ceremony at Postville Park, making it the city's first smoke-free park.  Below is a copy of the introduction speech given by Mallory Sinner of the health department.

(Copy)

Thank you all for being here to show your support for Lincoln's new Tobacco Free Parks Policy.

We couldn't think of a better day to begin promoting the new policy, because today is the third Thursday in November which means it's also the Great American Smokeout.

A little over a year ago the Health Department was granted a "We Choose Health" grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health, and one of our tasks was creating a tobacco free policy in a public place. With the support of the park district, mayor & city council we were able to get this policy passed in August.

Now that signs have been received and installed, we are finally ready to begin promoting this new policy.

Along with this event, press releases were sent to all local media and the Health Department newsletter will feature information about the new policy. We hope that informing the public about the new policy will allow all community members to be able to enjoy these facilities with less secondhand smoke and tobacco trash.

We couldn't have completed this project without the help of many organizations over the past year. First, the Lincoln Park District for writing a letter of support for the health department in our grant application, and allowing their parks to be included in the tobacco-free policy.

The park district also maintains many of the city parks and we hope that this policy will make their maintenance a little bit easier.

Thanks to the city council and the mayor for being incredibly easy to work with and passing a comprehensive tobacco-free policy to make the parks a healthier place for our community.

Thanks to the streets department for placing the signs on short notice.

Finally, thank you to the groups that have supported tobacco free parks from the beginning and worked to get this passed including the Healthy Communities Partnership, the Alcohol, Tobacco and other Destructive Behaviors task force, and Reality Illinois.

[Copy of speech by Mallory Sinner of the Logan County Department of Public Health]