News and Events

Gilchrist County Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) Chapter is Pushing the Message!
March 15, 2023

Students Working Against Tobacco (or SWAT) in Gilchrist County has grown tremendously over the past few years. From only a handful of members countywide when the club was first founded to today where we have over 50+ students now joined. Shows that tobacco related concerns and a healthy lifestyle is a concern not only for parents but also the school aged children of our community. With this growth in support and education to our adolescents SWAT clubs give students a platform to advocate and take action themselves to better their futures.


This quarter our Gilchrist County SWAT students are taking part in peer interviews to explore how their peers or other tobacco users in their lives got hooked on tobacco products. These interviews allow SWAT club members to use what they have learned in club to identify which big tobacco company tactics worked to get their interviewees hooked on the products. Through these interviews SWAT students will also get the opportunity to help educate the person they chose to interview on the dangers and unknowns that come with the use of these products. Particularly electronic vaping products, being the newest tobacco craze sweeping the nation. There are no long-term studies showing the damage these products can do to the human body but if they are anything like there predecessors it will not be good.

With our local SWAT going into the community to spread the message and educate whom they can on these matters, we should use their actions as an example for everyone in the community. We should all hope for a healthier lifestyle for our community members and neighbors, and seeing our future leaders take initiative can inspire the current decision makers within Gilchrist to follow there example and push for changes. Together we can work as a community to better the lives of everyone within our county and future residents to come.