KINGMAN – Kingman Academy High School teacher Salina Witt has gone above and beyond by acquiring a large donation of sunscreen for the student body to have access to. Salina has been teaching for 24 years and in that time, she has grown passionate about many things. She is passionate about athletics, psychology, of course her students. However, after battling melanoma Salina became passionate about educating youth regarding the importance of sun safety. Thankfully, Salina is at a point in her recovery where regular screenings are all that are needed, she is now able to use her experience to educate her students about early prevention.
Earlier this year, a member of Salina’s melanoma community informed her about a wonderful program called Ounce-by-Ounce. This program donates cases of Supergoop sunscreen to schools across the nation. She put in an application and months later she was informed that her school would be receiving thirty large bottles of SPF. Since receiving the shipment, she has started dividing the larger bottles into travel size containers to make it easier to pass out daily to all the students who want one. Despite the fall weather students are still coming daily to ask for their own bottle of sunscreen. As Salina stated, “Sun doesn’t discriminate seasons.” Arizona boasts over three hundred sunny days a year, but it is important to remember that even on cloudy days one is at risk for skin damage.
Salina’s primary goal is to make sure all students are educated about sun safety and use her experience as a lesson about what can really happen if these risks are not taken seriously. Since receiving the Supergoop donation it has sparked more conversation amongst students and their families about melanoma and ways to stay safe while enjoying the outdoors. Salina is ecstatic that this opportunity has helped raise awareness across the entire school while also granting students access to free, high-quality SPF.
Supergoop was founded by another passionate teacher, Holly Thaggard who made it her goal to educate students everywhere about the importance of practicing sun safety. She discovered that sunscreen wasn’t allowed in schools without a doctor’s note due to it being considered an over-the-counter drug. Holly advocated for a change to be made which has resulted in 28 states making new legislation allowing SPF in schools. Supergoop runs the program that Salina had applied to get the donation. Ounce by Ounce has donated nearly ten-thousand bottles of Supergoop sunscreen to more than two-thousands school across the nation. Educators in all states that have adopted legislation allowing sunscreen in school, are eligible to apply. For more information on the Ounce-by-Ounce Program please see the Supergoop website.
Katelyn Larocque
