Pinwheels Help Students Learn the Power of Tobacco-Free Air

Drivers passing Ocean City Intermediate School on Bay Avenue on Thursday afternoon may have noticed a sea of pinwheels spinning in the wind.

Each of the pinwheels represents one of the 1,200 people who die each day of diseases related to the use of tobacco.

The Student Coalition Against Tobacco (SCAT) club at Ocean City High School, led by Ocean City School District faculty members Tom Gahr and Katie Kline helped organize the event in recognition of the Great American Smokeout on Thursday, Nov. 21.

Gahr, an Intermediate School health teacher who has been advisor to the club since 1998, and Kline, a high school health and physical education teacher, coordinated with Tobacco Free South Jersey, the Ocean City Mayor’s Advisory Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and Councilman Antwan McClellan.

The event served as a reminder of the alarming death toll of tobacco to Intermediate School students who planted pinwheels during four different class periods on Thursday. The event also highlighted the new city ordinance prohibiting the use of tobacco products on playgrounds and public recreational areas in Ocean City.