Fox Lane Middle Schooler Promotes Anti-Smoking Message

Every seventh-grader at Fox Lane Middle School watches the film Pay if Forward, the 2000 film starring Kevin Spacey that conveys the notion of doing good deeds for others in advance, instead of paying back favors.

After seeing the film, students come up with an idea that carries that idea through, by choosing a "Building Communities" project that could help others. Eric Weiss of Bedford Hills said he chose an anti-smoking project because he wanted to promote a healthy lifestyle for his friends and their families.

On Thursday he introduced Maureen Kenney, Director of POW’R Against Tobacco, an advocacy group in White Plains that promotes anti-smoking through education and media, to his fellow students.

Weiss also presented daily anti-smoking messages during the school's morning announcements as part of his project and manned a table in the cafeteria with Ricki Butler, his guidance counselor, where they distributed promotional items stamped with the message "Live, Work, and Play Tobacco Free."

When asked if he was nervous about speaking in front of 300 people he said "just a little," but hoped his classmates took away an important message from Kenney's presentation.

"I've seen kids suffer from second-hand smoke, and I hope they won't have to anymore," he said.