By Kayla Perry
Leave the Pack Behind, a program to support students who want to quit smoking, will soon begin its annual Would U Rather contest.
The contest includes four categories: the largest of which include Quit for Good, a province-wide category for current smokers who want to completely quit smoking with a prize of $2500, and Keep the Count, a category for students who want cut the number of cigarettes they smoke in half with a $1000 prize. The other two categories include Party without the Smoke, for students who want to cut out smoking when drinking alcohol, which includes two $750 prizes, and the Don’t Start and Win category, for ex-smokers and non-smokers who wish to stay smoke free, with two prizes of $250 available.
“Even if you’re an ex-smoker, or someone who’s never had a cigarette in your life, you can enter the Don’t Start and Win category,” said Victoria Iannandrea, Leave the Pack Behind’s LU campus project coordinator. “It’s great motivation for students to continue living a smoke-free lifestyle.”
Iannandrea is also a fourth-year continued education student who has been working for the organization for a year. She said the six-week Would U Rather contest is a “contest for every kind of student, not just smokers.”
Registration for the contest begins on Dec.1, and ends Jan. 27, with the contest officially beginning the next day.
Leave the Pack Behind is a program offers a number of different services, including counselling and free nicotine replacement therapy (including nicotine gum and patches), available at the Health Services center on campus.
“The nicotine replacement therapy is pretty expensive, so it’s a really great program for students,” said Iannandrea.
The Leave the Pack Behind booth is set up in the Great Hall on Mondays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., although Iannandrea said the times may change in the new year.
For more information on Leave the Pack Behind, visit the stand Mondays and Fridays in the Great Hall, the Student Health Services, or go to leavethepackbehind.org. To enter the contest, sign up at wouldurather.ca.