Hello, My name is Brittany Romero. I am going to be a junior at Mora High School, and I am a freshman at Luna Community College. I have been in Evolvement for a year and this is gonna be my second year. I joined Evolvement to help not only my school and community, but help others stay tobacco-free. What I have learned over this past year is to not take anything for granted. I know that sounds cheesy but Evolvement is about spreading awareness and stopping young people like myself, before they even start smoking.
The Leadership Team Summit is great because they don’t just inform, but they make it fun and exciting to be a part of a group that cares about others. We have done 2 sessions for the Leadership Summit and I can’t wait to be in the next session. They have made getting to know the facts as a way to have fun. For example, the last session we had, we had to dress up for “Beach Vacay.” We were even given supplies so that we wouldn’t have trouble finding supplies for this meeting, along with snacks and toys to keep us from dying of boredom. But we don’t need the toys anyway as we have plenty of fun during the Summit.
During the meeting we would go into separate meeting rooms so that everyone could meet, and talk. We would talk about 24/7 campaigns and No Minor Sale surveys. Each campaign has its own way of helping others. 24/7 is about “Making New Mexico Schools 100% Tobacco-Free.” 24/7 helps schools adopt our tobacco-free policy standards. They also provide supplies like: signs and kits, that help the schools spread word about 24/7. Thanks to the 24/7 Campaign Manager, Raquel Mooring and the youth evolvers, the policy has been adopted in many schools. The No Minor Sale campaign “aims to end the access to and illegal sale of tobacco products, including e-cigs, to minors in New Mexico.” Thanks to the No Minor Sale Campaign Manager, Michael Kelly and the youth evolvers, we have educated many people on the dangers of tobacco products across New Mexico.
All in all, I would like to thank everyone for the amazing work they have done to help New Mexico stay tobacco free. They all represent Evolvement. A special thanks to Andrea for helping me my first year and Amanda for teaching me now and helping me get to know Evolvement even more. I have learned a lot and hope to learn even more.
