Cowboy Ted is Helping Students Tell Rodeo to Give Tobacco the Boot
Associated Press
Utah based healthy lifestyles advocate, "Cowboy Ted" Hallisey is on the rodeo trail again, but this time it is to help Give Tobacco the Boot in Oklahoma along with the Students Working Against Tobacco program.
Cowboy Ted is a former Salt Lake City radio personality and nationally known rodeo journalist. He has been invited to serve as a spokesperson for the Give Tobacco the Boot campaign in rural communities across the country. He also serves as a spokesperson for the Buck Tobacco program in California.
Hallisey will talk with SWAT students in Oklahoma City on Fri. and Sat. to help the students coordinate grass roots efforts to take tobacco out of the sport of rodeo during the Bullnanza Rodeo event in Oklahoma City this week.
The student advocates have asked the rodeo committee to "Spit Out Big Tobacco" and will hold a demonstration, complete with a mock hearse and statistics about tobacco-related illness and deaths, while located in front of the Ford Center in Oklahoma City during the rodeo event on Sat. evening after the training session with Cowboy Ted.
Cowboy Ted is also working to Give Cancer the Boot in his hometown of Kanab, Utah during his Give Cancer the Boot fundraising campaign. Local merchants will sell a card to Give Cancer the Boot and then display it with your name on it at the local business. The cost is one dollar and all of the proceeds go to Cowboy Ted's Foundation for Kids, A Utah Nonprofit Corporation.
Proceeds from the campaign will be used to help fund healthy lifestyles programs and reading programs for Southern Utah kids. Local merchants scheduled to help Cowboy Ted to Give Cancer the Boot include, Matty McPhatts, Kane County Office of Tourism, Rewind Cafe, Best Western Red Hills, Glazier's Food Town, Honey's Jubilee & Fuel Stop, and Kanab Tire and Shell Station. Dollar cards were also available during the All-Bull Tobacco-Free Rodeo, which was held at the KanePlex in Kanab on Sat. July 30.
Hallisey made three trips to California this past spring as a spokesman for the Buck Tobacco program. He was in Clovis and Oakdale to ask organizers of these popular rodeos to discontinue their affiliation with United States Smokeless Tobacco Company.
He and other tobacco educators formally asked the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) to drop their sponsorship deal with United States Smokeless Tobacco Company during the National Finals Rodeo last Dec. in Las Vegas. The current sponsor deal expires this year.
Cowboy Ted was also a presenter at the National Tobacco Awareness & Education Conference in Chicago in May and he presented a program at the Spit Tobacco Summit in Montana last fall. He was also featured in the recent issue of the Brigham Young University student newspaper for his work in trying to get the Utah State Fair to drop their tobacco sponsor package.
Cowboy Ted is scheduled for similar healthy lifestyles presentations in Oklahoma City in Aug. Poway California in Sept. and Billings Montana in Oct. He will be a featured presenter during the National Spit Tobacco Summit (www.throughwithchew.com) in Casper Wyoming in the fall.
Cowboy Ted' s Foundation for Kids is a Utah Nonprofit Corporation. The mission statement is as follows: "To introduce young people to a positive Cowboy role model, who will encourage youngsters to choose a Healthy Lifestyle for themselves, including the choice to refuse to use tobacco products." For more information on Cowboy Ted's programs go to his web site at www.cowboyted.com.