Students from school districts including Ogdensburg, Hammond and Gouverneur recently attended the Reality Check Youth Summit at Cazenovia College.

During leadership workshops and teambuilding exercises with 150 other youth from around the state they “made plans for raising awareness in their own communities about the impact tobacco marketing has on youth,” according to a news release from the Seaway Valley Prevention Council.

“It seems like tobacco companies are trying to deceive kids with packaging that looks like candy and thousands of flavors that appeal to kids like strawberry and bubble gum,” Ogdensburg Free Academy student Kenzie Bucher, 13, said in a prepared statement from the prevention council. “The more kids see tobacco the more likely they are to start smoking. We’re here to say we’ve seen enough tobacco in our communities.”

During the Youth Summit, Reality Check members “demonstrated how they believe tobacco companies’ deceptive marketing draws kids to tobacco products, using large displays of what would normally be considered kid-friendly items, such as a kid’s birthday cake with cigarettes for candles, and a banner reading ‘the average age of a new smoke is 13 years old,’” the prevention council said.

At each demonstration, Reality Check youth “explained how kid-friendly exhibits grab that attention of passerby just as the tobacco industry is grabbing youth’s attention with tobacco marketing in stores,” the prevention council said.