We had a wonderful guest speaker for the
volunteers the other day. Her name is Bev Orrill and she works with the
Chaffee County Health Department and their One Step program. She had
some interesting facts in regards to smoking, tobacco, and a baby’s
health.
*A person who smokes usually comes from a smoking culture, meaning that everyone around them smokes also.
*There are at least 7,000 chemicals in a cigarette and 70 of them are known to cause cancer.
*Smoking is 10 times more addictive than heroin and cocaine so be patient and uplifting to
those who want to quit.
*Not your grandpa’s cigarette…It wasn’t until after WWI that they
started to put nicotine in cigarettes because companies realized that
only about 20% of those returning home were addicted.
*When asked if he smoked, RJ Reynolds, owner of his own tobacco company
made a rather nasty comment stating that he would never smoke his own
product.
**Smoking acts as a vasoconstrictor and it closes the arteries and veins
for 20 minutes after smoking. If a woman is pregnant and she smokes
half of a pack of cigarettes a day, then her baby is deprived of nutrients for 200 minutes on that day.
**Small children take in more breaths than adults, so second hand smoke
triples the effects of smoking on young ones.
The One Step program encourages you to take on step… simply step outside
to smoke. Use a smoking jacket or something that you can leave on the
porch to put on and remove when smoking so that the effects on children,
babies and pregnant women can be greatly reduced.
There are many resources available for those who need it. Call 
1-800-QUIT-NOW
in Colorado. There is also a texting app if you don’t want to make
contact with anyone at Quit Mobile. If you would like a more hands on approach, then start by contacting Bev Orrill at 719-221-9777 or 719-539-4510
in Salida, Colorado. By joining up with Bev you can earn gift
certificates for gas and diapers when you go through the One Step
program. Plus you can earn points for the Buena Vista Pregnancy
Center’s Earn While You Learn program well. It’s a win-win for
everyone!
If you have
stumbled upon this blog, then welcome! This is for the Buena Vista Pregnancy
Center in Buena Vista, Colorado. We are
a little town of roughly 2,600 people in the Arkansas River Valley. I hope to tell you a little about the folks
that volunteer at the Center, events that we do with the community and stories of
joy within our walls. But let me start
by telling you a little about myself. My
name is Amy. I came to know about the
Center in 2008 when a friend of mine suggested that I join the Board of
Directors. To say that I did not feel
equipped was an understatement. I had
never volunteered in that capacity before and had never been on a board
before. After some prayer and soul
searching I couldn’t think of a better way for me to get involved. I said yes and so began my journey with the
Center. The choice I made was truly life
changing. I have learned so much about
hope, courage and what it takes to build a family these days. Along the way, I even gained a new family of
my own through all of the wonderful folks that are involved with the
Center. It is such a great feeling when
you belong to a cause that extends beyond the lives of those immediately around
you…when you can look out after some time and feel its reaches far beyond the
limits of your life, your home, your city and that bubble you have created that
holds your world in place. As we begin
to stretch our boundaries now comes another part of the journey. With the creation of the internet we have an
opportunity to let more people see our world at the Buena Vista Pregnancy
Center. We want to extend our reach as
far as we can so that we can grow our community of family. To achieve this, we have created a website http://www.bvpregnancycenter.com/ and a Facebook page (titled Buena Vista Pregnancy Center) and
now this blog in order that you may get a chance to see us in our element, to
hear from us on topics that we have learned about and to understand how our
hearts beat for each and every human life on earth. We look forward to getting to know you as
well. So please feel free to comment and
share your journeys with us. We can’t
wait to get to know you!
