Last fall, members of Ignite Wellesley campaigned for legislation to ban smoking in cars with children, which had already been introduced in the Massachusetts House and Senate. We did a public awareness campaign near the Boston Commons in which two of us wore a cardboard cutout of a car with the fact “1900 Infant Deaths from Secondhand Smoke Each Year” on the side. Others passed out bright yellow informational palmcards, and asked people to sign a petition in support of the legislation.

As part of the same project, we wrote letters to our local State Representative Alice Hanlon Peisch and State Senator Scott P. Brown explaining the importance of the legislation and asking for their support. Representative Peisch met with us at our school to discuss that legislation and other anti-tobacco issues, and expressed her support. Our college’s newspaper, the Wellesley News, wrote a story about our meeting.

Though the legislation was not passed (at least not before I left), our efforts raised awareness of the issue among both politicians and the general public.

Yes, we attracted a lot of attention...