News and Events

The Annual Cross City Fly-In Becomes a Tobacco-Free Event!
April 23, 2016

The 2nd Annual Cross City Fly-In and Expo took place in Cross City, Florida on April 23, 2016. The Dixie Chamber of Commerce puts on this annual event, and the Tobacco-Free Partnership of Dixie County was a silver sponsor for the event this year.

This year the Chamber of Commerce made the decision to protect attendees of the Fly-In Air Show by making the event Tobacco-Free.  Members of the Tobacco Free Partnership of Dixie County presented a tobacco free policy to the Dixie County Commissioners that included smoke and smokeless tobacco for all visitors, vendors and volunteers.  The commissioners passed the policy because they wanted this to be a free and health event for everyone. The Tobacco-Free Partnership of Dixie County provided the signage for the event and participated as a vendor. Tobacco Free signage was posted throughout the event.

Over 3,000 people attended the Cross City Fly-In and Expo.  Members of the Tobacco Free Partnership of Dixie County, and youth from the Ruth Rains Middle School SWAT club participated by hosting a booth designed to bring awareness to Tobacco Free Florida Week and engage community members to celebrate this event. The focus of the information in the booth was to support the theme of TFF Week, which is to educate Floridians about the dangers of Secondhand Smoke, and to educate the community on local secondhand smoke statistics. On the 2014 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey, 52.4 % of Dixie County High School Students reported to have been exposed to secondhand smoke during the past seven days, and 17.2 % reported that smoking is allowed in their homes.  Resources were also handed out to attendees to better inform Dixie County residents about the dangers of second-hand smoke exposure.  

The SWAT youth created a banner to post at the booth and created pamphlets to hand out to visitors. Many kids came up to the booth to spin the wheel to learn more about the dangers of tobacco and how big tobacco targets them as future customers.