Educator to raise smoking awareness
SAD 11 hires health coordinator with money from settlement with tobacco companies
Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
GARDINER — Anthony Anderson doesn't want students in School Administrative District 11 to help pay his salary.
That's because Anderson's salary as health coordinator for SAD 11 is paid with grant money originally generated by tobacco sales. One of Anderson's top priorities in his new job is to create a districtwide health curriculum that teaches kids about the hazards of smoking.
"Once we get this curriculum implemented, we can say to big tobacco, 'Take your best shot; we're ready for you,' " Anderson said. "They spend millions of dollars marketing to children. But we'll be ready to take them on."
Anderson is filling a newly created position in the district. The health coordinator's position is funded by a five-year grant. SAD 11 is one of 31 Maine school systems receiving money from the Fund for a Healthy Maine. That fund was established with money received by the state as part of the national settlement with four of the larger tobacco companies.
Locally, the grant will be administered by the 26-member Community Health Advisory Board. School districts cannot administer the grants directly.
Anderson meets with the group for guidance and to ensure that the community is involved in the health effort.
Anderson said some anti-smoking work began during the past school year.
"One of the best things that happened in our district last year was about a half-dozen high school kids — all smokers —went to meet with fifth-graders," said the 32-year-old Pittston resident. "They talked to them about smoking, they told horror stories about what the cigarettes had done to them, how hard it is to quit. The fifth-graders really took it to heart. With tobacco, you have to start early. A recent study said kids are exposed to their first opportunity to smoke in fifth grade. These are 8- and 9-year-olds and they're being handed a cigarette."
The other two top priorities of the new curriculum will be getting students to increase their physical activity and eat healthier foods.
Anderson is also charged with assuring that the curriculum lines up with the the Maine Learning Results, the state's curriculum standards.
Efforts to improve health awareness in the district don't end with students. Anderson believes that teachers and other staffers must lead by example.
"My personal philosophy is we cannot affect social change without being a model for social change," he said. "We can preach health all we want, but if we aren't a model for health, the kids won't buy into it."
Last spring, more than 300 SAD 11 employees took part in a program encouraging them to walk 10,000 steps a day, four days a week. A grant paid for pedometers — watch-sized devices that count each step taken — for staffers to wear as they exercise.
Anderson is the former physical education teacher at Gardiner Regional Middle School. He holds a master's degree in exercise physiology and is working toward a certificate of advanced studies in educational leadership.
Anderson said Maine is seen as a national leader in efforts to improve the health of students.
"Healthy students can perform better academically. Tons of studies have shown that," Anderson said. "And, long-term, if the health of students improves, so won't the health of the community."
Keith Edwards — 621-5647 kedwards@centralmaine.com