News and Events

Highlands County SWAT Chapter Holds its Second Annual Summer Program
August 15, 2019

The SWAT Chapter of Highlands County held its second summer program in June and July. In the past, summers are relatively quiet since school is out and people are vacationing, and while last year was the first summer program, this year was even busier! The summer program consisted of two days during the week for 4 hours, unlike last year with only one day a week. Not only that, participation dramatically increased from last year’s 3-4 members to anywhere from nine to eleven this year!

The main focus this year was teambuilding and electronic cigarette education in conjunction with the #notalabrat campaign. SWAT youth and advisors met every Monday and Tuesday from 9AM – 1PM and each club had at least one representative at one or more meetings.

“We rarely have SWAT Chapter meetings, only individual club meetings, so it was nice for some of the other SWAT members to meet their peers from other schools,” said Amanda John, Tobacco Prevention Specialist in Highlands County. “We did icebreakers, teambuilding and learned so many neat ways to incorporate the #notalabrat campaign in the upcoming school year.”

There were also plans made for park clean ups, tobacco prevention holidays and a yearly SWAT Chapter meeting.  The summer program was an awesome refresher for SWAT members and they are looking forward to wonderful things this fall!

In addition to the summer program, SWAT clubs also kicked off the school year with several recruitment events at back-to-school open houses. There were a ton of students that signed the roster and SWAT members at each school plan to personally reach out to those students that signed up. Each club set up a booth with informational handouts, a tri-fold board with SWAT pictures and displayed SWAT swag to grab attention.

“There are so many things to look forward to this year in SWAT and with awesome recruitment events, The SWAT Chapter of Highlands County is sure to see a very successful year ahead,” said Amanda John.

If you are interested in more information about The SWAT Chapter of Highlands County, contact Amanda John at ajohn@quitdoc.com