Oakdale Leader News Thursday, April 14, 2005

The message was simple. "Smart cowboys don't use tobacco."

That was what radio personality 'Cowboy Ted' Hallisey told Oakdale children during rodeo week 2005.

Hallisley was in Oakdale to promote healthy lifestyles and send a strong anti-tobacco message to students at Fair Oaks, Magnolia, and Cloverland Elementary Schools. The promotion was both complementary to the Oakdale Rodeo and counterpoint to one of its sponsors, the smokeless tobacco company.

Hallisley is the official spokesperson for the 'Buck Tobacco' campaign, a statewide operation promoted by county health services agencies to teach the dangers of smokeless, or 'spit' tobacco. The quoted statement is one of many that he made to the fourth through sixth grade classes at Fair Oaks elementary school. "You can finance your college with what people spend on chew," he told them.

He engaged the children in his presentation and had their complete and undivided attention. That's not such an easy task for an assembly full of kids.

He said he's perfected his presentation style over the years and also uses a 'dummy steer' for roping that helps him involve the kids directly in his presentation by having some of them come up in front of the group and rope its horns.

"I use the cowboy persona to get the kids' attention, then I ease them into the mainstream healthy lifestyle concepts."

Background

Hallisey has been involved in rodeo for more than 20 years. He grew up on a small ranch in Southern California where his family had livestock and horses. He said he rode a few bulls, but never competed in an official capacity.

After a few injuries, he said he found out he could be involved in rodeo by writing about it for rodeo publications, announcing at amateur rodeos, and talking about it on the radio.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication from CSU Fresno and a Master of Education degree in Health, PE, and Recreation for Utah State University.

Kids Club

In 1999, Hallisey was working in radio in Salt Lake City. He was asked by station management to make some appearances at Red Ribbon Week activities in local schools.

"I told them, 'I'm not the best candidate because I chew tobacco.' And they said, 'Why don't you quit.' So I did," he said.

The reason he said he was able to do it was because he had chewed one of the lighter, flavored, types of 'spit' tobacco, did it as more of a social thing, and had been quitting on and off for 15 years.

He said that after quitting, for a while he tried using the mint snuff, but realized it still left a tell-tale 'ring' in the hip pocket of his jeans and made it appear as if he were still using. Being that he was talking to the school kids, he decided to quit chewing the mint as well. He also got rid of all his jeans that had the worn ring in the back pocket.

From there, things kind of snowballed. He began talking to the kids more frequently in Salt Lake, then in schools across Utah.

He said schools made suggestions, and then some principals suggested that he organize a kids club, which they believed would help give some kids a sense of identity. Cowboy Ted's Kids Club was born.

"The first year, 5,000 joined. Now, there's got to be over 20,000," he said. "I totally embrace the opportunity to be a role model for kids."

The foundation of the Cowboy Ted's Kids Club is a list of eight healthy lifestyle rules that are symbolic of an 8-second ride in rodeo.

The eight rules are: Respect Parents, Lead a Healthy Lifestyle, Work Hard in School, Be Nice to Others, Be Kind to Animals, No Drugs, Tobacco, or Alcohol, Set Goals For Yourself, and Do Something Nice For Another Person Every Day.

The mission statement for the kids club is 'To introduce young people to a positive Cowboy role model, who will encourage youngsters to choose a Healthy Lifestyle for themselves, including the choice to refuse to use tobacco products.'

After becoming more known in Utah and some published information on the Internet, he started getting calls from Wyoming, Montana, and then California.

Rodeo and Tobacco

Hallisey said that he hopes rodeo will get on the bandwagon with other professional and college sports and ban the use of tobacco sponsorships, the way that NASCAR and others have.

The Buck Tobacco program even presented the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association with a certified letter to then commissioner Steve Hatchell to ask the association to stop using the tobacco sponsorship.

Hallisey said the PRCA issued a statement to Buck Tobacco about wanting to hear what the people had to say before they renew their USST (U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company) sponsorship, but wouldn't force individual rodeos to follow suit either way.

"Tobacco sponsorship has not always been a part of rodeo. They came in when they figured out they could make money.

"A lot of people think that tobacco has always been involved in rodeo. Tobacco never had a place in rodeo. They paid money so they could showcase their product.

"If we look back in history, we'll see that tobacco has only been in rodeo for a short period of time.

"I think it's a disservice to the cowboys because they're getting them hooked. A bunch of these guys think they have to use tobacco to be a cowboy," he said.

Part of the disservice that Hallisey refers to is that rodeo contestants are frequently given free cans of tobacco included in contestant bags at rodeos around the country.

"I don't talk to the adults about it (not using tobacco), especially in the rodeo world. The cowboys don't want to hear it from me, so I talk to the kids," he said.

A Plea For Local Change

The timing of the presentations set up by the Stanislaus County Health Service Agency were purposefully meant to take place just before the Oakdale Rodeo, where tobacco sponsorships provide money and a scoreboard to put on the rodeo that many consider to be a family event.

"We'd like to encourage the community and the rodeo not to take tobacco sponsorship anymore," said SCHSA health educator Ken Fitzgerald.

The SCHSA has complained that a smokeless (spit) tobacco sampling tent has been located next to child attractions at the rodeo and have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to convince Oakdale Saddle Club officials to drop the tobacco sponsorship.

The OSC has responded by saying that the sponsorship provides an expensive scoreboard that they otherwise couldn't afford, but agreed to have the sampling tent placed elsewhere, away from the kiddie booths. They said they need the financial benefit of the sponsorship, and that they would need help finding a replacement sponsor if they were to drop the current one.

SCHSA representatives state that they hope to continue to work with the OSC in order to bring a more health and family oriented major sponsor to the Oakdale Rodeo.

The Poway Rodeo in San Diego is cited as a success story. Cowboy Ted was located and contacted via the Internet by that county's health services agency. He visited the area and had a booth at the rodeo.

Because of public response, the next year the rodeo went tobacco free. Poway Rodeo officials made a one-year commitment for the next rodeo to not use a tobacco sponsor. Dole Fruits stepped up to the plate and filled the sponsorship opening. The large attendance and positive write-ups in publications for the rodeo committee's decision resulted in another year's commitment.

"Most (rodeo) committees feel that tobacco companies act fairly responsible, but they're still promoting the product," said Hallisey. "What about all the kids that go to the rodeo? I'd like to see the rodeo become a stronger family event again."

Hallisey is getting ready to make a presentation in Chicago at the Tobacco Or Health Conference, a national tobacco education conference, on behalf of California's Buck Tobacco program. The HSA is hoping to take the campaign nationwide.

For more information about or a no-cost membership to Cowboy Ted's Kids Club, interested persons can go to the website designed for kids to learn about rodeo, reading, and a healthy lifestyle at www.cowboyted.com. And for more information about the Buck Tobacco program, they can visit www.bucktobacco.org.

Leader staff reporter Dawn M. Henley may be contacted at 847-3021 or dawn@oakdaleleader.net

By DAWN M. HENLEY