Angels among us

Ken Johnston

If you woke up Friday morning and could not figure out where all the black snow angels came from, well you were not alone.
Members of the Rainy River Youth Action Alliance (YAA), along with several volunteers, travelled around Rainy River Thursday evening and made snow angels. They then painted them black symbolizing death caused by tobacco.
YAA and its helpers managed to get 130 angels made and painted all around town in less than two hours. Many of the locations had signs with them stating data about the truth of tobacco.
YAA says that tobacco kills about 130 Canadians every day and about 47,000 annually. “In support of National Non-Smoking Week, local youth are teaming up in the fight to denormalize the tobacco industry and promote anti-tobacco initiatives.
Over 125+ youth from the communities of Atikokan, Dryden, Ear Falls, Fort Frances, Ignace, Kenora, Rainy River and Red Lake along with youth from communities in the Thunder Bay District created 130 black snow angels in each of their communities to draw attention to the fact that 130 Canadians die each day from tobacco related disease.
The Northwestern Health Unit and the local Healthy Communities Coalition partnered to apply for the program which has seen four young people hired to work 10 hours per week in and around Rainy River. YAA members are Nick Ashworth, Amy Anderson, Brandon Gough and Jen McCormick.