Ishivita Bali, recipient of the 2020 Statewide Youth Leadership Award.

This year, the annual Kick Butts Day event at the Massachusetts State House could not take place. However, youth from The 84 Movement still wanted an event to celebrate their efforts to reduce the influence of the tobacco and vaping industries in their communities. So the young leaders created and participated in a virtual training and awards ceremony via Zoom on April 29.

The 245 participating youth and adults from around the Commonwealth all work to educate and mobilize young people in their communities about tobacco and vaping industry targeting.

The 84 Movement virtual event celebrated the groundbreaking legislation in Massachusetts that restricts the sale of flavored tobacco products, including mint and menthol products. The importance of the new law and other efforts to protect youth is heighted during the time of the coronavirus as evidence grows that smoking and vaping can harm the body’s ability to fight COVID-19.

Opening remarks at the virtual Kick Butts Day: Take Down Tobacco awards ceremony were delivered by Senator John Keenan and Representative Danielle Gregoire, co-authors of An Act to Modernize Tobacco Control. They emphasized that youth activism played a pivotal role in the development and passage of what Senator Keenan called “the nation-leading law.” Senator Keenan explained that the strong bill became a law because “quite simply we had an incredible group of young people standing up for their generation.”

During the awards ceremony, awards were presented to individuals and chapters of The 84 Movement for their dedication to reducing the impact of tobacco in their communities and across Massachusetts.

The 2020 Youth Leadership Award went to Ishivita Bali, a youth leader of the Somerville Positive Forces (a program of Somerville Cares About Prevention). The award is given to one young person each year who goes above and beyond the call of duty in promoting the work of The 84 and who embodies what it means to be a leader in the fight against tobacco.

In accepting the award, Ishivita Bali reviewed activities that she and her chapter engaged in to counter how the tobacco industry targets teens as replacement smokers. She concluded by reflecting, “Especially in these unprecedented times, it is very empowering to see how we can stick together, even though we are physically apart, by coming together on this virtual event and appreciating each other to provide support and impact positive change. That’s why, my chapter and I have put together a video and more media to show how we can “flatten the curve” through acts of kindness in our community and educate that youth who smoke or vape are likely to be more vulnerable to COVID-19.”

At previous Kick Butts Day events at the State House, hundreds of youth from The 84 Movement visited their legislators telling stories of tobacco industry influences that concern them and explaining their work to pass protective local policies in their communities. Following this year’s online event, The 84 Movement chapters are virtually thanking their legislators for hearing their voices, listening to their local stories over the years, and doing their part to protect youth from a lifetime of nicotine addiction.

The 84 Movement is a program of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program, developed and managed in partnership with Health Resources in Action. Created in 2007, The 84 represents the 84% of Massachusetts youth who did not smoke cigarettes (in 2017 that number was 93%).

For more information on The 84 Movement and the work being done throughout the Commonwealth to reduce tobacco and vaping industry influence on youth, visit www.The84.org, mass.gov/vaping and www.makesmokinghistory.org.

The Metro Boston Tobacco-Free Community Partnership supports communities’ efforts to lower smoking prevalence and exposure to secondhand smoke; enhance state and local tobacco control efforts by exposing tobacco industry tactics; mobilizing the community to support and adopt evidence-based policies; and changing social norms. Funded by the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program, Community Partnerships serve as a resource for local coalitions, health and human service agencies, municipalities, and workplaces on tobacco intervention efforts.