Letter - Smoke-free fair?

Talk about it

To the editor:

Although I enjoy going to the Douglas County Fair every year with my kids and grandkids, I do not enjoy the smoking out there. I witnessed a very disturbing scene yesterday at one of the kiddie rides; as we were waiting in line for our grandkids to go on the little boats, the carnival worker was lifting little kids onto the ride with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth! This actually made me sick to my stomach.

I remember seeing this last year too and had asked the girl running the ride to please put out her cigarette so she didn’t burn the little kids. During this past year, I mentioned the incident to one of the fair board members and he assured me that they try very hard to monitor this.

Well, when I witnessed it again yesterday, I had to speak up once again. I told the guy, “You really shouldn’t be smoking around these little kids” and he replied, “Oh, I forgot” and put out his cigarette. I believe the Douglas County Fair should be smoke-free; could the board work on that for next year?

Kim Dingwall

Brandon, MN

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