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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The anti-smoking campaign "Don't be a butthead - be smoke-free" is celebrating five years and the commitment of more than 4,890 NWT youth.

The Don't be a Butthead committee will be having a "High Five" celebratory assembly and lunch with dignitaries, parents and students at each of the participating schools.

Butthead role models at Range Lake North school, from left, Trisha Cruz, Lauren Modeste, Maggie Works, Holly Baker, and Autumn Beamer show off their Butthead gear, letting everybody know they're smoke-free. - photo courtesy of Julie Bennett-Coad

The campaign is aimed at eight to 14 year-olds, but some children committed to the program when they were six or seven-years-old. Kids who have committed to remain smoke-free get a renewal notice each year to re-commit to the program. Already this year, more than 1,200 NWT youth have re-committed.

"We work at getting re-commitments," said Miriam Wideman, health promotions specialist, tobacco with the NWT Department of Health and Social Services. "We had at least 1,500 re-commitments each year."

Kaw Tay Whee school in Dettah was the first school in the NWT to participate by challenging K'alemi Dene School in Ndilo to be smoke-free.

According to Statistics Canada, the Northwest Territories had the second highest smoking rate in the country in 2005. In the NWT, 36 per cent of people smoked, behind only Nunavut, where 53 per cent of the population smoked in 2005.

"Kids get an association with the concept that it's not cool to smoke and it's cool to not be a smoker," said Wideman.

The program targets kids who haven't started smoking and gives reasons why they shouldn't start. Wideman said she believes the younger group buys into the campaign.

"Kids wear them all the time," Wideman said of the Butthead gear hoodies and T-shirts. "They understand what the message is and what message they're giving out to other people when they wear them. The program's all about getting kids to make a promise to themselves and making that a public promise that they act on."

Territorial smoking rates two years after the program began in 2006 were the same as when the program began in 2004, but Wideman said smoking rates for people under the age of 15 have declined. Health and Social Services performs school tobacco surveys every few years.

"We saw a really encouraging decline," she said of the 2006 smoking survey.

The rate of smoking in Grades 5 to 9 in the NWT declined to 12 per cent in 2006 from 14 per cent in 2002. She said the report has not yet been published.

The Butthead campaign's latest presentation has a movie theme.

"The more movies you see with smoking in there, the more likely you will be to actually be a smoker yourself," said Wideman.

"We've done two evaluations of the program and the message of the campaign is very well understood in the NWT by kids and adults alike," she said.