UUP is paying tribute to one of its fallen sisters with a new Smoking Cessation Program, unveiled by UUP President Phillip Smith last month at Brooklyn HSC.

The program honors Barbara “Bobbie” Harrison, left, the chapter office manager at Brooklyn HSC who died May 23 as a result of burns sustained in a fire started by a cigarette ember. She was the office manager at the Brooklyn HSC chapter for 12 years.

“We are all devastated by her loss,” said UUP Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud, Brooklyn HSC chapter president. “Helping others to stop smoking would be a fitting tribute to her memory.”

The “Take One Step for Bobbie” campaign officially kicks off Sept. 9, with a memorial service and “Quit Smoking Now” program that includes a chapter-sponsored contest to give up smoking for a week and the opportunity to enroll in the campus’s smoking cessation study.

In 2009, UUP will expand the campaign to include fire prevention and safety, and an educational component.

For more information on the program, contact Blackman-Stroud at rblackma@uupmail.org or Isabel Rodriguez at isabel.rodriguez@downstate.edu.
— Karen L. Mattison