| 113th Year, 38th Issue | Thursday, May 2, 2002 | Sparta, North Carolina |
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Melissa Kroeger, a fifth-grade student at Sparta Elementary School, placed first in the 2002 North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians (NCAFP) statewide 'Tar Wars' poster contest. Kroeger's poster, "Tobacco-Free Is For Me/We," was selected out of 50 posters from fourth- and fifth-graders across the state. The students all participated in a Tar Wars interactive presentation that concluded with the children creating posters against tobacco use. Lauren Higdon from Cowee Elementary in Franklin, Macon County, and Meredith Locklear from Butler Avenue Elementary in Clinton, Sampson County, were the runners-up. Kroeger will travel to Washington, D.C. to represent North Carolina in the 2002 Tar Wars National Poster Contest, which has been scheduled for July 21-23.
Tar Wars is a pro-health, tobacco-free education program and poster contest designed to target fourth- and fifth-grade students. Developed in 1988 by the Hall of Life at the Denver Museum of Natural History and Doctors Ought to Care, Tar Wars has been implemented in all 50 states across the country.
The goal of the program is to discourage tobacco use among youth nationwide. The key elements of the program are its interactive format, community involvement and education by parents, teachers, and health professionals, who are often family physicians, according to a release.
To date, over 90 elementary schools across North Carolina have implemented
Tar Wars. Two of the mission objectives of the NCAFP are to improve the
health of patients, their families and the people of North Carolina and to
serve with professionalism and creativity the needs of its members.
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