About Tobacco Free Wabash | Wabash County Tobacco Free Coalition

ABOUT the Coalition

OUR MISSION

Prevent tobacco use, protect residents from secondhand smoke, shift cultural attitudes, support quit efforts, prevent youth initiation, and uphold laws that reduce public harm from tobacco and e-cigarettes.

OUR VISION

Significantly improve the health of Hoosiers in Wabash County by being free from nicotine addiction and the exposure from any tobacco products.

OUR PURPOSE

Prevent and reduce the use of all tobacco products in Wabash County.
Protect all Hoosiers from the exposure of tobacco smoke through education about the dangers of secondhand and thirdhand smoke and reducing its exposure to the public.
Change the cultural perception and social acceptability of tobacco use.
Provide easy access, resources and information on the Indiana Quit Line.
End the initiation of tobacco use to Wabash County youth.
Assist tobacco & e-cigarette users with nicotine dependance treatment.
Support the enforcement of tobacco laws concerning the sale to youth, youth using any form of tobacco product, and public exposure to secondhand smoke.

OUR PRIORITY AREAS

Decrease youth smoking rates by:

offering resources to school sponsored programs
provide instruction about the dangers of tobacco to teens that are caught with tobacco at school or by law enforcement
offer cessation to those that have already acquired an addiction to tobacco
provide prevention programs for all 2nd & 5th graders, Middle and High School students

Increase the proportion of Wabash County residents not exposed to secondhand smoke by:

educating the County of the benefit of having a more comprehensive smoke- free law to protect all residents
assisting all businesses, medical and health care facilities, and organizations to comply with the state smoke-free law

Decrease Wabash County adult smoking rate by:

offering cessation services
contacting businesses, organizations and health care providers to become “Indiana Quit Now Champion”
providing information that clearly reveals the dangers of tobacco use

Maintain an infrastructure necessary to achieve health equity by lowering tobacco use and exposure by:

building a board-based Coalition that is involved in fulfilling the vision and mission of the Coalition
acquiring partners that support the vision, mission, and work of the Coalition

Coalition STAFF

COALITION DIRECTOR: Dan Gray

For the last 2 decades, my life has been centered on preventing addiction before it starts, protecting young people and reducing disease that devastates families and communities. Every youth who never starts because of prevention programs, school partnerships, and community messaging is a life with more health, more opportunity, and fewer barriers. Every parent who quits because of resources promoted is a home with less secondhand smoke and more years together. Every school helped become tobacco free is a safer environment for thousands of kids over time.

I hope the time spent as director of Wabash County Tobacco Free Coalition will ripple outward through educators, health systems, and community partners so to have a healthier county, fewer cancer diagnoses, and an entire generation with lower addiction rates.

This has been my motivator. This has been my calling for the last 20 years.

YOUTH COORDINATOR: Suzanne Peebles

In 2019, I began serving as the Youth Coordinator at Wabash County Tobacco Free Coalition, where we provide a Prevention Program to Wabash County students. By choosing to live tobacco-free, these young people can create healthier futures for themselves and the next generation.

We say, “Tobacco stops with you!” because one decision to say no can create a ripple effect across families and communities. That impact is what continues to inspire me to empower youth to make healthy choices.