VP Gore To 'Kick Butts' With Washington, DC Students On April 2

Washington, DC - On Thursday, April 2, Vice President Al Gore and thousands of kids from across the country will join in the 3rd Annual Kick Butts Day. Gore will speak to students at Washington, DC’s Hine Junior High School, encouraging them to take a stand against tobacco and 'Kick Butts.' The Vice President, who took an active role in last year’s Kick Butts Day, will express his support for the nation’s young tobacco control activists by speaking out about against tobacco marketing to minors. Kick Butts Day is sponsored by the CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS. The Hine students will be among thousands of kids in nearly 300 cities nationwide engaged in the third annual Kick Butts Day. Young people in every state in the country -- plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Korea -- will be striking back against the tobacco industry’s manipulative marketing tactics by organizing activities to expose and counter Big Tobacco’s powerful promotional strategies aimed at minors. Nationwide, young people will carry out a variety of tobacco control activities, such as conducting undercover buying operations, holding rallies to support increases in state tobacco taxes, lobbying local officials to support anti-tobacco ordinances, holding mock funerals for the Marlboro Man and tossing hats, jackets and other gear carrying tobacco brand names into dumpsters. Elsewhere in the suburban D.C. area, kids in Falls Church, Alexandria, Chantilly, Woodbridge, Laurel and Potomac will also take on the tobacco industry this week. In Falls Church, for example, students at J.E.B. Stuart High School will hold a mock wake for a life-sized replica of 'Mr. Butts.' WHO: Vice President Al Gore and students at Hine Junior High School WHAT:'Kick Butts Day' National Event WHEN:Thursday, April 2, 1998 12:30 p.m. WHERE:Hine Junior High School 7th and Pennsylvania Avenues, SE Washington, DC