MEDIA ALERT/Photo Opportunity – Milwaukee school visit this FRIDAY, April 25!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WEST ALLIS, WIS., April 21, 2008 – Milwaukee Brewers’ outfielder Corey Hart and infielder Rickie Weeks will kick-off the 2008 Stamp Out Spit Tobacco Education Program at Garland Elementary School on Milwaukee’s south side, 1420 W. Goldcrest, on Friday, April 25 at 10:15 a.m.

Wisconsin Dental Association member and Marquette University School of Dentistry pathologist and Academic Dean Denis P. Lynch, D.D.S., Ph.D. will join Hart and Weeks in helping fifth graders from Garland and the Spanish and French Immersion Schools celebrate the eighth year of this award-winning project.

A cooperative effort of the WDA, the Milwaukee Brewers, Group One Marketing, Wisconsin Departments of Public Instruction and Health and Family Services since 2001, this oral health program is funded by $96,000 in state tobacco education funds and more than $225,000 in real and in-kind contributions from the private partners.

Representatives from the University of Wisconsin – Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, UW - Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center and St. Croix County Department of Health and Human Services joined this year’s program to help expand the message.

A new online ordering process is reducing waste and ensuring that participating classrooms receive the appropriate materials, including teacher’s guide, an entertaining and educational DVD, a curriculum-based B-Force comic book for each student and pre and post-tests to measure program effectiveness. The health messages target fifth graders and are integrated with language, math, social studies and science skills.

This year’s comic book again features Hart and Weeks as the B-Force. They are assisted by fictional WDA dentist Dr. Brushem in their pursuit of the villainous character Grossmouth and his gang, including the newest recruit – Yellowtooth. Activism messages from FACT (Fighting Against Corporate Tobacco) have been added to the story which takes readers from Miller Park in Milwaukee to Eagle River in Vilas County to Ellsworth in Pierce County and along the Mississippi River.

This year’s Stamp Out Spit Tobacco materials will be shared with some 7,000 students in 166 classrooms across Wisconsin. In addition, a free 2008 B-Force comic book will be given to each of the first 10,000 youngsters under the age of 16 to enter Miller Park on April 27 to watch the Milwaukee Brewers take the field against the Florida Marlins at 1:05 p.m. WDA President Dr. Monica Hebl, a Brookfield resident with a Milwaukee dental practice, will throw out the first pitch on behalf of this oral health awareness program.

A new mini-grant program was initiated this year to encourage teachers and students to work with local businesses, community boards and organizations to stop tobacco companies from targeting youth through advertising, sponsorship and promotion.

Ladysmith Middle School teacher Marena Tepler and her students will receive the program’s first $500 mini-grant. Fifth-graders at this Rusk County school plan to share anti-spit tobacco messages with others via the school’s public address system, bulletin boards and outdoor marquee sign.

Prevention messages like those in Stamp Out Spit Tobacco Education Program materials are credited with a 39 percent reduction in the number of Wisconsin young people using smokeless tobacco, from a high of 12.7 percent in 1999 to 7.7 percent in 2007.

According to the National Cancer Institute, chewing tobacco and snuff contain 28 cancer-causing agents and smokeless tobacco users have an increased risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity. Approximately 75 percent of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancers are attributed to smoking and/or chewing tobacco.

The results-oriented Stamp Out Spit Tobacco Education Program has received multiple awards, including the American Dental Association Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Dental Health Promotion to the Public (2002); WDA Pyramid of Pride Award for Community Outreach (2002); Wisconsin Tobacco Control Board Organizational Leaders Award (2002); Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter – Public Relations Society of America Paragon Award of Merit for Public Service Programs (2006).

Established in 1870, the WDA is headquartered in West Allis. With more than 2,900 members statewide, the WDA represents the vast majority of practicing dentists in Wisconsin. Its members are committed to promoting professional excellence and quality oral health care. The WDA is one of 53 constituent (state-territorial) dental societies of the American Dental Association - the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. For more information on the WDA, call 414-276-4520 or visit www.wda.org.

CONTACT: Carol S. Weber, APR, Director of Public Relations
PHONE: 414-755-4108 (direct)
E-MAIL: cweber@wda.org