REAL at the Maui Great American Smokeout

The Maui News
KAHULUI – The annual Great American Smokeout, a nationwide event created by the American Cancer Society to encourage smokers to quit, will be marked on Maui with a family event from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Maui Mall in Kahului.

Door prizes, food booths, interactive health awareness tables and live entertainment by One Inity and Lia Live will be featured at the free event, presented by The Coalition for Tobacco Free Maui. Mayor Alan Arakawa will open with a proclamation; Zumba by Rayo McPhee will follow.

Winners of the “Smoke-Free Cars = Healthy Kids” art contest will be presented by Sen. Roz Baker and Council Member Don Couch. The contest was open to all Maui County students in grades 6 to 8 to help build awareness that secondhand smoke in cars is harmful to everyone’s health, especially those who are ages 17 and younger.

Other Great American Smokeout events include REAL students on Couch’s morning talk show Tuesday and presentation to juniors and seniors at Baldwin High School on Wednesday, sign-waving by MEO Youth Service students on Thursday, Lahainaluna High School’s Health Fair and GASO Awareness Jam at Kalama Park on Friday. There will be a quit information table at University of Hawaii Maui College’s Paaina building Thursday.

For more details on the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline and other cessation programs, visit www.clearthesmoke.org.

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Letter to Editor

Dear Editor,
I want to thank you for your May 11th article called “Philip Morris CEO Says Cigarettes Not That Hard To Quit”. I actually attended that Philip Morris International Shareholders’ Meeting as a member of REAL, a youth-empowered tobacco prevention and advocacy organization in the state of Hawaii.

By covering his ridiculous statement you helped reveal the true colors of Philip Morris International and the blatant lies told by it’s CEO Louis Camilleri. How could anyone trust the words of a man like CEO Camilleri who directs a company that continues to heavily market a product that kills more than 6 million people around the world every year?

This statement was just one of many nefarious claims made by CEO Camilleri during the meeting, including mocking youth advocates who asked serious questions about his company’s policies.

Again, your article really shines the light on CEO Camilleri and the entire tobacco industry. Now I hope more people will stand up against the immortality of these tobacco companies.

Mahalo,
Grady Sullivan
21 years old
Pahoa, Hawaii

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