Getting people to stop smoking helped the cities of Mount Vernon and Lisbon this past year.
The Cold Turkey Project was recognized by the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group as their Project of the year.
According to the committee chair, Joe Jennison, the work on the project began even before the first smoker signed up as part of the cessation program. Jennison said he approached the Wellness Center of Rural Linn County as the group was considering getting into tobacco cessation about support for the program, and then worked with MercyCare business solution to offer a cessation program. From there, additional support was found from the American Heart Association, City of Mount Vernon, Cornell College, Hills Bank, Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center, Lynch Ford Chevrolet, MercyCare Business Health Solutions, Mount Vernon Community Charitable Development Group, Mount Vernon Community School District and the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department.
“It was a task many people believed we wouldn’t be able to complete, and being told we can’t do something makes this organization work harder,” Jennison said.
Jennison said the original goal was to have up to 10 smokers to agree to cease smoking, and at the beginning of January, Mount Vernon and two other communities were enrolled in the Cold Turkey challenge.
“A few days before the competition started, one of the communities dropped out, and two weeks into the challenge, the second community dropped out as well,” Jennison said.
For Mount Vernon, that meant that their nine participants needed to complete the cessation program.
When the group went to Des Moines to receive their check in February, they were unsure what the exact amount the check would be for, as they didn’t have 10 participants quit. The $50,000 is being used for improvements to the pocket park and out at the trail at the Lester Buresh Center.
“Some of that money has been installed for the chalkboards in the park, and Dale Merrill is working on an arch for the park as well as seating and trash bins for the pocket park to be installed in the future,” Jennison said.
While not all nine smokers have kept off tobacco after the cessation program, which is common for those who quit smoking, Jennison noted that those people have resources handy for when they try to quit again, and that the community will have improvements to these two parks as testament to the cessation by smokers in the future.