Dustin and Doug: The Community Celebrates Doug

SVHC: We had a little glitch with our technology, otherwise this blog would have been been published last week!

January 17 was SVHC's annual Community Forum where the health of Cortland, its challenges and success stories in the ares of youth, health, housing, and economic development were presented to an enthusiastic group of over 100 attendees. The event was held at SUNY Cortland's Corey Union.

As part of a number of presentations made that day, Jennifer Hamilton of Tobacco Free Cortland surprised Doug Bentley with an award for his significant contributions to the community, and particularly noted Doug's continued work in encouraging strangers to think about quitting smoking. City of Cortland Mayor Brian Tobin additionally declared January 17 as "Doug Bentley Appreciation Day" in the City.

The day was made even more special with Doug's siblings in attendance.  Dustin also agreed to speak about Doug, first talking about his own struggles with smoking cessation and how it "all came together" when a stranger named Doug stopped and asked Dustin if he wanted to see his tongue.

Congratulations to Doug on this well-deserved recognition and to Dustin for allowing us to follow his journey in such a public manner.  We know this won't be the last we hear from these two gentlemen.