A year later: Reality Check youth scopes tobacco litter in city park
NORWICH – A year after the City of Norwich Common Council adopted a tobacco-free park policy in city limits, Reality Check youth from Norwich High School (NHS) paid a visit to Kiwanis Park to evaluate how effective the policy has been so far.
Reality Check youth visited Kiwanis Park – located off of Rexford and River Streets – last Thursday to do a sweep of the area, flagging all of the individual cigarette butts in sight.
To the students' delight, they flagged only 101 cigarette butts throughout the entire park––76 percent less tobacco litter than last year.
"It looks like it's been getting a lot better," said Reality Check member Britney Blackledge. "It's still not good, but it's way better than last time."
The voluntary policy was adopted by the city council in September 2016 after Coordinator of Tobacco-Free Cortland, Chenango, and Tompkins Counties Rose Walsh presented evidence showing that the city's parks were littered with tobacco products.
Walsh noted to the council that some city parks, like Kiwanis Park and South Broad Street Park, were excessively littered, but other parks, like on Borden Avenue, weren't as bad. She hypothesized this was because the park on Borden Avenue had anti-smoking signs and the other parks did not.
Over a year after the council adopted the policy and erected anti-smoking signs, it appears Walsh's prediction was right: the presence of anti-smoking signs in Kiwanis Park has significantly cut down the amount of tobacco litter in the park, from last year's count of 420 tobacco-related items, to this year's count of 101.
"I think it's really good for the community because if there are cigarette butts everywhere, it's kind of sending a bad message to the little kids who play around the park," said Blackledge. "One of the most flagged areas was at the bottom of slides and swingsets, but this year there are only five [cigarette butts] in those areas."
Blackledge said that participating in Reality Check at NHS is a way for students to get together and talk about how they can make the world a better place.
"From tobacco usage and cleaning up tobacco litter, to everything else. This is just one way of making a difference," said Blackledge.
(L-R) Back row: Morgan Burdick, Christine Sank, Rose Walsh, Rhett Genung, Thomas Davis, Kristina Lamphere, and Sam Miller. Front row: Britney Blackledge, and Damien Lockwood. (Grady Thompson photo)
Reality Check youth visited Kiwanis Park – located off of Rexford and River Streets – last Thursday to do a sweep of the area, flagging all of the individual cigarette butts in sight.
To the students' delight, they flagged only 101 cigarette butts throughout the entire park––76 percent less tobacco litter than last year.
"It looks like it's been getting a lot better," said Reality Check member Britney Blackledge. "It's still not good, but it's way better than last time."
The voluntary policy was adopted by the city council in September 2016 after Coordinator of Tobacco-Free Cortland, Chenango, and Tompkins Counties Rose Walsh presented evidence showing that the city's parks were littered with tobacco products.
Walsh noted to the council that some city parks, like Kiwanis Park and South Broad Street Park, were excessively littered, but other parks, like on Borden Avenue, weren't as bad. She hypothesized this was because the park on Borden Avenue had anti-smoking signs and the other parks did not.
Over a year after the council adopted the policy and erected anti-smoking signs, it appears Walsh's prediction was right: the presence of anti-smoking signs in Kiwanis Park has significantly cut down the amount of tobacco litter in the park, from last year's count of 420 tobacco-related items, to this year's count of 101.
"I think it's really good for the community because if there are cigarette butts everywhere, it's kind of sending a bad message to the little kids who play around the park," said Blackledge. "One of the most flagged areas was at the bottom of slides and swingsets, but this year there are only five [cigarette butts] in those areas."
Blackledge said that participating in Reality Check at NHS is a way for students to get together and talk about how they can make the world a better place.
"From tobacco usage and cleaning up tobacco litter, to everything else. This is just one way of making a difference," said Blackledge.
(L-R) Back row: Morgan Burdick, Christine Sank, Rose Walsh, Rhett Genung, Thomas Davis, Kristina Lamphere, and Sam Miller. Front row: Britney Blackledge, and Damien Lockwood. (Grady Thompson photo)
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