The local project goal has two goals. The first is to raise awareness in the community of Oakdale and surrounding communities about tobacco sponsorship and sampling at the Oakdale Saddle Club PRCA Rodeo. The second goal is to mobilize and recruit community members to meet with the Oakdale Saddle Club Board of Directors before April 2005 and urge them to remove the sampling tent at the rodeo.

The Stanislaus County Buck Tobacco Project is posting a new billboard on Highway 108 in Oakdale on January 3, 2005. The large billboard reads, “Don’t let spit tobacco stain our rodeo.”

Mark Loeser, Buck Tobacco project director for HSA stated, “The residents from the Oakdale area who we are collaborating with are taking the issue very seriously. We have already begun outreach efforts with community leaders, teachers and students in the City of Oakdale.” Other rodeos being targeted in California include: Elks Rodeo, Santa Barbara County; Poway Rodeo, San Diego County; Salinas Rodeo, Monterey County; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Rodeo, San Luis Obispo County

One out of ten teenage boys uses smokeless tobacco (also called spit tobacco), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smokeless tobacco can lead to oral cancer, gum disease, nicotine addiction, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Recently, as thousands of rodeo fans attended the largest U.S. rodeo event of the year in Las Vegas, a group of activists urged the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) not to renew its national sponsorship contract with the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC) in 2005.

"We are absolutely not calling for an end to rodeo--we're very pleased that the sport is growing so much in popularity, and it's exciting to be here in Las Vegas during the National Finals Rodeo," said
Andrea Craig Dodge, director of the Buck Tobacco Sponsorship project. "But we're concerned that sampling booths, rodeo scoreboards, banners, and ads sponsored by the tobacco industry give young audience members the message that chewing tobacco is part of being a grown-up rodeo fan or cowboy."

Residents of 21 states (including more than a dozen major rodeo states) signed on to a letter urging the PRCA to end its sponsorship agreement with USSTC. Grassroots groups such as the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, regional offices of the American Heart Association, Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) in Oklahoma City, the South Dakota Tobacco-Free Kids Network the Youth Leadership Institute, and the American Lung Association have also signed on.

The PRCA has several other high-profile national sponsors, including Wrangler, Justin Boots, and Pace Picante sauce. "The PRCA clearly presents profitable sponsorship opportunities to many types of companies that are appropriate for a family-friendly sport like rodeo," said Dodge. "It can reject tobacco sponsorship in favor of a more family-friendly sponsor."

The Buck Tobacco Project is funded by three litigation settlements: one negotiated by the City and County of San Francisco and the Environmental Law Foundation, and the other two negotiated by the California Attorney General's office.

For more information about the Buck Tobacco Sponsorship project, visit www.bucktobacco.org.