With a final blow to a brightly colored piñata, a pungent smell filled the air as hundreds of cigarette butts scattered to the ground.
The butts — collected from local high school campuses — were meant to represent the problem of teenage smoking, an issue that some area students are working to combat.
Wednesday’s piñata-smashers were celebrating Kick Butts Day at Chapel Hill High School.
Similar events took place at other schools throughout the county as part of a national campaign against youth smoking, called Tobacco Reality Unfiltered.
“This is great for students, because if they have a passion about the issue, they really get a chance to act on it,” said Jim Wise, a student assistant specialist at Chapel Hill High.
Freshman Amanda Franczak, who is involved in the anti-smoking campaign, said she has a number of reasons for staying smoke-free.
“People don’t have long to live, so I’d like to live the longest and healthiest life possible,” she said.
Freshman Ian Ager, also involved with the campaign, said stopping students from smoking early on is the best way of curbing usage.
“Cigarettes are among the largest preventable causes of death in America,” he said. “It’s important that people are educated.”
