Red Ribbon Week
ABOUT RED RIBBON WEEK
October 23 – 31 (Same dates every year)
Red Ribbon Week is by far the largest and oldest drug prevention campaign in the country, and one of the most effective for preventing drug use among youth. It takes place on the same dates every year, October 23 through 31st and raises awareness about drugs, including tobacco, inhalants, heroin and more.
This national US health observance actively celebrated in nearly all US middle schools and high schools, which have their own locally based campaigns for Red Ribbon Week every year. It was started by the National Family Partnership.
Middle and high schools offer speakers at school assembly programs, red bracelets, educational videos, student skits, and other programs and activities.
Red Ribbon Week empowers communities and individuals across the US, especially youth, to take a stand for drug prevention and education.
We have listed some activities, information and resources for Red Ribbon Week below, and at bottom, the dates of related health observances.
We recommend our award-winning educational video for Red Ribbon Week
The Truth about Tobacco, 2011 Edition
Our critically acclaimed educational video for schools and institutions
For 6th – 12th grades
Licensed for showing in schools
DVD
UP TO DATE with current info and graphics
TobaccoFree.org is a non-profit tax exempt 501c3 group.
An acclaimed speaker for middle schools & high schools
Make one call to ask a hospital to sponsor this speaker’s school assembly program — at no fee to your school! Hospitals often quickly sponsor the full cost.
See our Five Minute Plan to bring this program to your school.
This nationally known tobacco-free advocate is a popular motivational speaker at schools, hospitals, corporations and colleges.
Patrick Reynolds is a grandson of the tobacco company founder, R.J. Reynolds, but the family’s brands, Camel and Winston, killed his father and eldest brother.
Mr. Reynolds is a popular speaker at corporations and universities; view recent client testimonials and short videos of his talks to companies and colleges.
Inviting press is an option. Marketing Directors sponsor his talks in part because press coverage of his appearances is strong and positive. Reynolds’ program builds goodwill for sponsors and is an excellent outreach for clients. See what his clients are saying.
If funds are low, try making one brief call to a likely local sponsor. Check out our Five Minute Plan with talking points.
“In a little over an hour, Reynolds went from being just another anti-tobacco speaker to something special,” commented a front-page story in one local paper. View recent news coverage.
“Within the first five minutes, I was amazed to watch Patrick Reynolds create an extraordinary bond with our school’s culturally diverse and economically underprivileged teens,” said Hali Rosen, a teacher at Hawthorne (CA) High.
“After his opening story about his own father’s absence and the sadness and anger he felt as a youth because of it, he asked the students, ‘How many of you do not have your biological fathers living at home with you?’ When over 50% of the audience slowly raised their hands, our students seemed to realize that these shared emotions cross all economic and social borders — and a bond was formed.
“After that, the students listened quietly and respectfully, and I could see real interest in their faces, as they related to his overheads and the moving stories he told, so very effectively and skillfully.”
Click for more feedback from recent clients, and learn what teachers, hospitals, health departments and university faculty are saying about his talks.
An outline of Patrick Reynolds’ talk for youth follows below.
For details about his talks for adults, please scroll down this page or click below.
Possible local sponsors and talking points
Preview video and audio clips
“Here in suburban Chicago, three hospitals joined together with the county health department to co-sponsor this excellent community outreach. Hospital marketing executives were thrilled with the positive front page news coverage. Tobacco control staff in the health department made their job easier, by handling all the details with the schools at which Mr. Reynolds spoke. His evening presentation for community members was also a great success.
“Over his five days of talks in schools, Mr. Reynolds gave youth here a motivating and informative health lesson, through his professional and dramatic story-telling, and his use of powerful overheads. His talk followed CDC-guidelines. I wholeheartedly recommend this extraordinary speaker and his program. In each of the nine schools he visited, he received near universal praise from students and staff. This was a truly outstanding program and community event.”
Jessica Gerdes, RN, MS, NCSN
School Health Consultant
DuPage County (IL) Health Department
Make one local call
Who to call, and talking points
Ask a local hospital to fully sponsor.
See our Five Minute Plan with talking points
The Truth About Tobacco
A live school assembly program
for middle schools and high schools
Talk for adults
This live presentation empowers youth to stay tobacco free. Teachers agree this speaker is educational, highly motivational and inspiring, and that he captivates students of all backgrounds. See comments from recent clients.
Live or in the new bestselling educational video of his live talk, this program empowers youth to stay tobacco and drug free. Patrick Reynolds —
- Opens hearts and minds with the story of his father’s death from smoking
- Emphasizes the addictiveness of nicotine
- Opens students’ eyes to how tobacco ads manipulate our youth
- Creates a new awareness of smoking by stars in TV and films
- Motivates teens to resist peer pressure to smoke
- Gives students a formula for saying no, with clear examples
- Empowers audiences to make more responsible choices about drugs and alcohol
- Offers an initiation into life, rooted in ancient traditions. “The core message of my brief initiation today is this,” Mr. Reynolds says, “first, to gently open your eyes to the reality that there’s bad in the world — and that life brings everyone some painful moments and obstacles. It’s by staying with whatever difficulty life throws at us that we heal, and solve our problems — not by running away. But many adults escape their pain with cigarettes, food, alcohol, drugs, TV, or even work. A lot of teens use music. Instead, when problems arise, don’t alter you mood by running away to these. Stay with your problem, and talk to others about it — a trusted teacher, your parents, the school counselor, your friends. Stay with the problem, and talk to someone. You’re initiated now — and a little closer to the world of adults.”
- Includes motivation on making ethical choices, positive thinking, saying no
- A recurring theme: stressing the need to talk about problems to another person, and not isolate
- The touching and powerful story of Sean Marsee, a young track star who died at 19 from chewing tobacco, illustrated with heartrending before and after photos.
- Hilarious artwork which make fun of Joe Camel, in a hospital bed, and the real Malboro Country: smokers puffing — and coughing — outside an office building door.
- Includes motivation on making ethical choices, positive thinking, saying no
- A recurring theme: stressing the need to talk about problems to another person, and not isolate
- The touching and powerful story of Sean Marsee, a young track star who died at 19 from chewing tobacco, illustrated with heartrending before and after photos.
- Hilarious artwork which make fun of Joe Camel, in a hospital bed, and the real Malboro Country: smokers puffing — and coughing — outside an office building door.
- Restoring students’ faith in the future. In this age of terrorism, student worry about the future has become more widespread. This five minute section near the end of Mr. Reynolds’ talk empowers youth to deal more effectively with their doubts and fears about the future, and helps to restore their faith in the coming years. This gives students a tangible reason to hold on to their health. Mr. Reynolds motivates students to 1) Talk about their worries and fears to another person, 2) Affirm the positive, with real-life examples given, 3) Reevaluate: what is real wealth, anyway? 4) to “Catch my faith, my rock solid faith in the future.” He concludes, “So stay tobacco, drug and alcohol free, for the wondrous, amazing years ahead. Don’t smoke, don’t drink and don’t use drugs —because you’ll need your health, every precious bit of it, in the incredible future that’s coming.” To preview this section, see Video or Audio Clip 5 on our clips page. students a tangible reason to hold on to their health. Mr. Reynolds motivates students to 1) Talk about their worries and fears to another person, 2) Affirm the positive, with real-life examples given, 3) Reevaluate: what is real wealth, anyway? 4) to “Catch my faith, my rock solid faith in the future.” He concludes, “So stay tobacco, drug and alcohol free, for the wondrous, amazing years ahead. Don’t smoke, don’t drink and don’t use drugs —because you’ll need your health, every precious bit of it, in the incredible future that’s coming.” To preview this section, see Video or Audio Clip 5 on our clips page.
- A closing promise: “One day we will have a tobaccofree society. And, ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to have it because of you — you are the future!”
- Space permitting, Mr. Reynolds encourages sponsors to invite members of the local community to his middle and high school talks, and to immediately follow with a Town Meeting about smoking, after students return to class.
A talk for universities, conferences
and community members
Tobacco Wars!
The Battle for a Smokefree Society
or
Crossing over to a Smokefree Campus policy
Barb Coleman, MS, Associate Professor
School of Health and Human Performance
Northern Michigan University
Tobacco is a truly important global issue: on average one out of three people around the world are currently addicted. As a result, in coming decades smoking may kill one billion people in this century, according to the UN World Health Organization.
Second hand smoke endangers the health of non-smokers, and 100% smoking bans are becoming the norm. Private organizations and governments alike keep strengthening their tobacco policy.
Tobacco Wars! The Battle for a Smokefree Society educates and inspires college students, corporate employees, hospitals, community members and health conference attendees. For many, Reynolds’ talks were a key element of the implemention of a new or strengthened tobacco ban on corporate and university campuses. See client reviewsand short video clips of Mr. Reynolds’ recent talks to organizations transitioning to a 100% smokefree campus.
This speaker reaches the hearts and minds of his audiences. Patrick Reynolds opens with stories about the RJ Reynolds family, by turns colorful, humorous and moving. He speaks vividly and movingly about his memories his father’s and eldest brother’s deaths from smoking, and then switches gears and offers a report card on tobacco control for the State he is in.
At universities, he’ll compare your State to the rest of the nation in four areas: current State tobacco taxes, State spending this year on youth smoking prevention, spending on cessation, and your State’s current laws limiting smoking in restaurants, bars and other workplaces. Finally, he’ll suggest what can be done to bring about change.
In his talks to employees at corporations and to other groups transitioning to a tobacco-free campus, his focus is on second hand smoke, tobacco cessation, and how to successfully handle loved ones who smoke without alienating them. Patrick talks about his own tobacco addiction and his personal struggle to quit. See the feedback and short video clips of Mr. Reynolds’ recent talks to corporate employees and at universities going tobacco-free.
He’ll provide the current number of States which have passed strong Statewide 100% smoking bans (29 as of May, 2014), and include a list of entire nations which have banned smoking nationwide. He’ll also cite large health studies which show reduced diseases caused by second hand smoke in nations and cities which have had strong smoking bans in effect. He’ll close with the promise of a healthier future, and note that one day, smoking will be no more.
While not included in his corporate talks, at universities Mr. Reynolds offers his insightful perspective on the influence of the tobacco lobby on Congress, the UN World Health Organization’s Global Treaty on Tobacco Control, ratified by 170 nations as of June, 2011, the new FDA law to regulate tobacco, and the cutting back of tobacco prevention programs by most States.
Time permitting, Patrick often includes a powerful section from his talk for grades six through twelve: he’ll tell the moving and powerful story of Sean Marsee, a young track star who died at 19 from chewing tobacco. See this short video excerpted from a recent talk to youth, illustrated with shocking before and after photos.
For comic relief, he shows some hilarious slides which make fun of Joe Camel, depicting him in a hospital bed, and present “Malboro Country” as a group of smokers huddled in an alley behind an office building, getting their nicotine fix.
He briefly mentions other addictions of our society — drugs, alcohol, food, and more. “Looking at the big picture, these addictions are a way of avoiding our pain, and changing our mood. But it’s better to face the problem at hand instead of avoiding our feelings,” he says.
At high schools and some colleges, he brings back the ancient tradition of initiation. His core message is, “Life is designed to be painful at times, and you can do it. When tough moments come, and they will, don’t avoid your pain by using tobacco, drugs, alcohol, or even abuse food, music, or work, like so many uninitiated adults do.
“Instead stay with your problem, talk to others about it, and take steps to solve it. Share your problem and feelings with someone, whether your friends, the school counselor, a trusted teacher or mentor, or your parents… Welcome! You’re initiated now, and a bit closer to the world of adults.”
Before some college groups, Mr. Reynolds also includes a short section near the end to empower students to keep faith in the future, and to deal more effectively with their doubts and fears about the years ahead. In an age of economic upheaval and an uncertain economy, new diseases such as AIDS, SARS and bird flu, reports on global warming, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the threat of terrorist attacks at home — all these have raised levels of worry and pessimism among students about the future.“
Mr. Reynolds believes that the danger of widespread pessimism among youth is a likely contributor to increased rates of tobacco, alcohol and drug use. If we can inspire students to keep faith in the future, this should motivate them to hold on to their health.
Mr. Reynolds asks students to 1) Talk about their worries and fears to another person, 2) Affirm the positive, 3) Reevaluate: what is real wealth, anyway? Is it only about money? and 4) to “Catch my faith, my rock solid faith in that in the long term, there are wondrous years ahead of us all.” He urges students to, “Stay tobacco, drug and alcohol free, for the wondrous, amazing times ahead. Don’t smoke, don’t drink and don’t use drugs — you’ll need your health, every precious bit of it, in the incredible future that’s coming to us all.”
To preview this closing section of his talk to youth, see the classic video Clip 5 on our clips page. For a more recent video of this, scroll half way through after it starts.
Finally Mr. Reynolds offers a closing promise — an inspiring vision of the coming tobaccofree society.
After, there is a Q & A session, and if time permits, an informal reception following the talk.
Video clips of Patrick Reynolds’ recent talks to adults and youth
Contact: Office Manager
(310) 577-9828
email See Contact link in left panel
ABOUT PATRICK REYNOLDS
Patrick Reynolds’ appearances in the national media and before Congress have made this grandson of tobacco company magnate R.J. Reynolds an internationally known and respected advocate for a smokefree society.
Mr. Reynolds saw his father, oldest brother, and other relatives die from cigarette induced emphysema and lung cancer. Concerned about the mounting health evidence against tobacco, in 1986 he became the first tobacco industry figure to turn his back on the cigarette business. In the words of former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, “Patrick Reynolds is one of the nation’s most influential advocates of a Tobaccofree Earth.” His book, THE GILDED LEAF, published by Little, Brown in 1989, was a bestseller, and he founded Tobaccofree Earth in the same year.
A dynamic speaker, Mr. Reynolds entertains, educates and motivates audiences. And the media coverage of his appearance will bring the smokefree message to your entire community. Patrick Reynolds has addressed Congress, State legislatures, major corporations, associations, health conferences, universities, and high and elementary schools. It is in the latter category that he now wishes to devote the majority of his attention.
Patrick Reynolds‘ appearances in the international press include profiles by Time, Newsweek, AP, UPI, NBC’s Tom Brokaw, CBS’ Dan Rather, ABC World News, CNN Headline News, and numerous features by the world’s major dailies. He has also made memorable TV appearances on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Larry King, ABC’s Nightline, Phil Donahue, Extra, Entertainment Tonight, and numerous other national and international television and radio shows.
Reynolds’ program makes for great public relations for your group. He’s an ideal speaker for the Great American Smokeout Day, Red Ribbon Week, your Health Awareness Week and World No Tobacco Day. Forward this link to your Community Relations or Public Relations director, and suggest they think about bringing Patrick Reynolds in to speak.
Mr. Reynolds has been called powerful, inspirational and motivating. His dynamic talk makes a lasting impression, and media coverage has been consistently positive and strong. Sponsors will build a valuable bridge to their community.
Volunteer five minutes
Make one local phone call to a likely sponsor, to bring Mr. Reynolds in to present a motivational talk in your city. Your phone call proposing this idea may soon result in a live talk to youth or adults, and you’ll have made a difference in your community. Please take a minute and look over our suggested local sponsors and talking points.