Take advantage of this national day of quitting to get the support you need for a day without tobacco. The Piscataquis Public Health Council will give you a special box, the “Butt Bucks” box, to save the money you would use to buy tobacco. At the end of a week or a month of saving, treat yourself! Ask your friends to help you stay busy instead of reaching for that cigarette. Pledge to make your home or car smoke-free, to make it healthier for you and those around you. Mayo Regional Hospital offers low cost counseling to quit at 564-4276. The Maine Tobacco Helpline can also help you for free at 1-800-207-1230.

If you know people who are trying to quit, you can encourage them by wearing a pin that says “Go 24!” - 24 hours free of tobacco. Offer to help them get through the day without tobacco by taking them to a movie, shopping, out to dinner, or treating them to something fun. Give up something yourself to show them you will go through it with them. The pin is available free from the Piscataquis Public Health Council.

Your workplace can be a part of this effort too. If you sell tobacco products, you can remove the promotional signs- those signs have been shown to mostly influence teens to get them to smoke. Instead of “smoke breaks”, have “fresh air breaks” where you all go outside and enjoy smoke-free fresh air. Mayo Regional Hospital is celebrating its tobacco free policy that began on May 31, 2003, World No Tobacco Day. Cafeteria patrons can get a “cold turkey special” and WorkWISE will offer a goodies bag and Butt Bucks box for those trying to quit. WorkWISE will also have the “GO 24!” pins available and a table in the hospital’s front lobby with information.

Call 564-4344 for the “Go 24!” pin, the Butt Bucks box, or for more information.

Robin Mayo, Community Partnership Director
Piscataquis Public Health Council, A Healthy Maine Partnership, 564-4344
Mayo Regional Hospital, 897 West Main Street, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine 04426