Opening comments by Mallory Sinner
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[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.
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(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.
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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]
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