By Grant Willoughby | @KyKernel

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University Health Service will be hosting its annual UK Kicks Butts event this Tuesday to bring awareness to the issue of tobacco use.

The event is also sponsored by the College of Pharmacy Student Advisory Council and the Tobacco-free Campus Initiative Task Force, and it will feature a display of white sheets covered with handprints, each representing five lives lost to tobacco each year.

The handprints in black paint will represent the 30 percent of UK students who use tobacco.

“Nearly 8,000 people die each year in Kentucky due to smoking,” said Fadyia Lowe, a UHS tobacco treatment specialist. “That’s 22 people per day.”

According to Lowe, both the men’s and women’s soccer teams will be present at the event, which will include attractions such as tobacco-themed “Jeopardy!” and corn hole.

Giveaways will include free T-shirts, free food and lemonade, as well as coupons for dining locations on UK’s campus. Information and resources will be available at the event to help students quit tobacco or to help someone else quit.

UK Kicks Butts will take place outside the Rose Street Walkway from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday.