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DES MOINES, Iowa, March 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Back in November 2020, Above + Beyond Cancer announced a nicotine-cessation contest, called the Cold Turkey Challenge, which offered a $50,000 community betterment grant for an Iowa small town that could gather a group of tobacco users in their community and work with them to stop using nicotine during an eight-week contest.
Cold Turkey
The Cold Turkey Challenge was open to all Iowa communities with populations of 5,000 or fewer. The eight-week contest officially kicked off January 1, 2021 and ends today, February 26, 2021. It was created to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the release of the 1971 Norman Lear movie, "Cold Turkey," which was filmed in Iowa. It was the brainchild of long-time Iowan Doug Reichardt, and the Reichardt Family Foundation, in conjunction with Dr. Richard Deming, the Founder of Above + Beyond Cancer. Each community established a team of "Fighters" who pledged to not use tobacco for the duration of the eight-week contest, the team that was most successful became immeasurably more healthy and earned the betterment grant for their community.