Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 25, 1995                   TAG: 9508250074
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI JAYCEES LAUNCH CAMPAIGN AGAINST TOBACCO USE BY YOUTHS

Representatives of the Jaycees Against Youth Smoking program will call on merchants to remind them what the law is.

The Jaycees also have some powerful political allies in their drive.

State Sen. Bo Trumbo, R-Fincastle, Del. Tommy Baker, R-Dublin, Pulaski Police Chief Herb Cooley, county Sheriff Ralph Dobbins and his Election Day challenger Norman Dowdy joined Jaycee representatives and Pulaski County American Cancer Society President Harold Stout in Trumbo's Pulaski office to proclaim Sept. 3-9 as Jaycees Against Youth Smoking week.

Town Councilwoman Alma Holston, Trumbo's aide for Pulaski County, signed the proclamation on behalf of Pulaski.

Holston is a smoker. But while "I consider myself young," she said, she admits she is no minor.

"It's one thing if an adult decides to smoke," Trumbo said later, but it's different for young people and, in fact, is illegal in every state to sell cigarettes to minors.

He said that whether organizations or individuals want to get involved in curbing teen-age smoking is up to them. "...they [the Jaycees] stepped up to the plate today and said yes."

Similar proclamations will be made in other localities with Jaycee chapters due to increasing concern over youth smoking.

"Merchants in this county need to know that they can have a part in this program, too," said Jaycees representative Jackie Burnette.

The materials to be distributed to merchants selling tobacco products reminding them of the age law is funded through the Jaycees and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.