As a former teacher, I know firsthand the positive influence that student leaders can have on their friends, schools and communities. This is the reason that I am so pleased to announce a new statewide initiative to tap into our high school students’ energy, enthusiasm and creativity to address one of Oklahoma’s most pressing health issues, cancer. Oklahoma Students Care encourages students from all over the state to help change the terrible toll that cancer takes on our citizens.
Cancer does not distinguish between rich and poor, big cities and small towns, crimson and cream or orange and black. It strikes too often in Oklahoma with devastating effects. One in two men and one in three women in our state will be diagnosed with cancer during their lives. That means more than 17,000 Oklahomans each year are told they have cancer, and 7,500 of them die from this disease.
But students all over Oklahoma, students in your own community, can help change these numbers. Through Oklahoma Students Care, students are encouraged to initiate programs that increase awareness of cancer-causing behavior and raise money to assist cancer patients and their families.
It might shock some people, but it is estimated that nearly 25 percent of Oklahoma’s high school students smoke, and 25 percent of high school boys use smokeless tobacco. Better diets, more physical activity and eliminating tobacco use could cut Oklahoma’s cancer death rates by nearly 30 percent, according to the experts. We need student leaders to make this case to their friends so that today’s students are not tomorrow’s cancer patients.
While helping prevent cancer in the future, students also can have a meaningful impact on the lives of cancer patients today by raising money. In addition to the physical challenges that cancer patients face, they and their entire families often face a multitude of social, economic and emotional issues. Funds raised through Oklahoma Students Care will stay right here in Oklahoma to provide assistance to cancer patients from throughout the state who are treated at the OU Cancer Institute, Oklahoma’s only comprehensive academic cancer center.
Recently, every Oklahoma high school was mailed information about how their school can be a part of this important program. I challenge our student leaders to make Oklahoma Students Care an important part of their school year. Next spring, I will host a luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion for the student leaders from schools, large and small, that have established the most successful awareness and fundraising programs.
Cancer is one of the most pressing public health issues in our state, and I am confident that students will be a part of the solution. I hope students from your community will join me to show that Oklahoma Students Care!
For more information, please visit www.OKStudentsCare.org.
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As a former teacher, I know firsthand the positive influence that student leaders can have on their friends, schools and communities. This is the reason that I am so pleased to announce a new statewide initiative to tap into our high school students’ energy, enthusiasm and creativity to address one of Oklahoma’s most pressing health issues, cancer. Oklahoma Students Care encourages students from all over the state to help change the terrible toll that cancer takes on our citizens.
Cancer does not distinguish between rich and poor, big cities and small towns, crimson and cream or orange and black. It strikes too often in Oklahoma with devastating effects. One in two men and one in three women in our state will be diagnosed with cancer during their lives. That means more than 17,000 Oklahomans each year are told they have cancer, and 7,500 of them die from this disease.
But students all over Oklahoma, students in your own community, can help change these numbers. Through Oklahoma Students Care, students are encouraged to initiate programs that increase awareness of cancer-causing behavior and raise money to assist cancer patients and their families.
It might shock some people, but it is estimated that nearly 25 percent of Oklahoma’s high school students smoke, and 25 percent of high school boys use smokeless tobacco. Better diets, more physical activity and eliminating tobacco use could cut Oklahoma’s cancer death rates by nearly 30 percent, according to the experts. We need student leaders to make this case to their friends so that today’s students are not tomorrow’s cancer patients.
While helping prevent cancer in the future, students also can have a meaningful impact on the lives of cancer patients today by raising money. In addition to the physical challenges that cancer patients face, they and their entire families often face a multitude of social, economic and emotional issues. Funds raised through Oklahoma Students Care will stay right here in Oklahoma to provide assistance to cancer patients from throughout the state who are treated at the OU Cancer Institute, Oklahoma’s only comprehensive academic cancer center.
Recently, every Oklahoma high school was mailed information about how their school can be a part of this important program. I challenge our student leaders to make Oklahoma Students Care an important part of their school year. Next spring, I will host a luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion for the student leaders from schools, large and small, that have established the most successful awareness and fundraising programs.
Cancer is one of the most pressing public health issues in our state, and I am confident that students will be a part of the solution. I hope students from your community will join me to show that Oklahoma Students Care!
For more information, please visit www.OKStudentsCare.org.
