Tobacco-free family fun offered at Marketplace

Group will be spreading the word on the dangers of tobacco use and vaping at the Main Street Marketplace.

TORRINGTON » The Northwest CT Partnership For Tobacco Free Communities will be spreading the word on the dangers of tobacco use and vaping at this year’s Main Street Marketplace in downtown Torrington on Thursday, July 13.

Attendees are encouraged to stop by the group’s Tobacco-Free Family Fun Zone to be located between Maiden Lane and Mason Street on Main Street of the Marketplace from 5 to 9 p.m. for activities, games, prizes and giveaways, and information emphasizing building a tobacco free community. The zone will feature a corn hole game and a “Big Daddy” trailer mounted race track where kids can try their skills navigating model race cars to win prizes. Area students and educators have developed educational messages and displays that will be featured to help get the message out that kids should not be fooled by tobacco companies and their products.

The partnership has been addressing the rise and harmful effects of tobacco use among younger people including e-cigarettes or vaping pipes which are also referred to as Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems. Considered the “lesser of two evils” when compared to standard cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping are a delivery system for nicotine and no amount of flavor can hide its damaging effects. The soaring use of e-cigarettes among young people is now a major public health concern.

The Northwest CT Partnership For Tobacco Free Communities is a community intervention program focused on tobacco use prevention and control in youth and young adults residing in northwest Connecticut. Representatives from Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, EDAdvance, McCall Center For Behavioral Health, Fit Together, and the Torrington Area Health District are collaborators who meet regularly to advance tobacco free initiatives. The main goal of the partners is to actively engage and mobilize community resources with adolescent and young adult tobacco prevention and control strategies and promote tobacco free living as a social norm. Another focus is to help develop middle and high school leaders that can assist us educate their peers and help create a community-wide tobacco free choices.

The 2017 Main Street Marketplace is held in downtown Torrington on Thursday evenings from 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. through Aug. 23. Each night draws over 3,000 attendees. Families, singles, people of all ages converge and energize downtown Torrington creating an electric atmosphere, set against the quarter mile backdrop of a beautiful New England city draped in “turn of the century” architecture. Visit mainstreetmarketplace.org for more information and a schedule of events.