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Senior project focuses on tobacco prevention
Rachal Mattson/Post-Register
Quincy High School seniors Conne Guerrero, ZulmaTapia and Jessica Avalos present a tobacco prevention workshop last Wednesday at Quincy Junior High
Students at Quincy Junior High heard what 1,200 pieces of unpopped popcorn poured into a bowl sounded like last Tuesday and Wednesday during an anti-tobacco presentation.
The kernels represented the people that die every day from tobacco use. The anti-tobacco presentation was part of a senior project by Zulma Tapia, Conne Guerrero and Jessica Avalos.
Before a senior can graduate from high school, he or she must complete a community service project.
Tapia, Guerrero and Avalos have seen the effects of tobacco and wanted to inform students about it.
“I’m seeing younger kids smoking,” Guerrero said. “I wanted to find a way to help them avoid it. There are consequences to smoking.”
The three seniors received training for their project from the American Lung Association of Washington in partnership with the Washington State Department of Health. They were trained in a program called Teens Against Tobacco Use that teaches teens how to talk to others about tobacco use. Once all the training is completed, program participants become certified teen teachers.
Tapia, Guerrero and Avalos presented students with facts about the some 4,000 toxic chemicals found in cigarettes and where else those same chemicals are found around the house, how many people in the United States suffer from smoking related illnesses and how much money advertisers spend on promoting tobacco products to teens.
They gave students hands-on examples of how smoking affects a person’s breathing and what kinds of diseases affect people who breathe secondhand smoke. Students were also given ways to talk to relatives and friends who smoke about why they should quit.
“We hope they will transfer this information to their families so they will know how harmful cigarettes are,” Tapia said.
“Tobacco harms more than people know,” Guerrero said. “It takes a lot of life away.”
“We want them to look at the chances they are taking,” Tapia said. “We want them to think of other people, not just themselves.”
“It’s rewarding to see the kids’ reactions to the chemicals in cigarettes and how many people die because of tobacco,” Avalos said.
“Their facial expression tells a lot,” Guerrero said. “I think they learned something.”
So what was the main thing they wanted students to walk away with? Avalos summed it up. “Don’t smoke!”
