People from across Clark County came together last week in a push to end tobacco use during National Kick Butts Week.

To start the week, students from Phoenix Academy and George Rogers Clark High School picked up cigarette butts littering the GRC and Robert D. Campbell Jr. High campuses.

Girl Scout Troop 491 got involved as well, braving cold temperatures to pick up cigarette butts in College Park Wednesday evening.

The events were organized by the Clark County Health Department, which also conducted a Freedom From Smoking class Tuesday and operated a public information booth Wednesday at the Winchester Kroger.

Other organizations got involved in Kick Butts Week as well.

Clark County ASAP challenged students from Baker Intermediate to come up with a slogan for the week and design a poster displaying it. Fifth-grader Ella Brock’s poster was chosen as the winner for her slogan: “cigarettes are bullies that travel in packs.”

 As the winner, Brock’s poster was displayed in all Clark County Public Schools in addition to other locations across Winchester during Kick Butts Week.

Additionally, Staff and residents of Rose Mary C. Brooks Place hosted a celebration for three employees who chose to quit smoking that week.

These events are part of more than 1,000 going on across the country, sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

In Kentucky, tobacco use claims 8,900 lives and costs $1.92 billion in health care bills each year. Currently, 16.9 percent of Kentucky’s high school students smoke, the second highest high school smoking rate in the United States.