On Thursday, University of Cincinnati students in collaboration with the American Cancer Society put on The Great American Smokeout, an event to motivate students to quit smoking. As per the American Cancer Society, cigarettes take roughly 6 million lives each year and many cut 10 years short due to it.

The annual event belongs to Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and the third Thursday of November is marked as a day to push smokers to quit. The event is based on an idea that if an individual succeeds in quitting smoking even for a single day, he/she will take an important step toward a healthier life.

A fourth-year marketing and international business student, Ryan Gaffney, helped in organizing The Great American Smokeout at UC. Gaffney mentioned that their motive is to help people who are looking forward to quit smoking.

Gaffney added that as it is a campus organization, and there are many youngsters with a fairly notable amount of people who smoke. During the event on Thursday, Gaffney and representatives of American Cancer Society accepted monetary donations, exchanging hot dogs.

According to Allison Smock, a community manager at Relay for Life, every single donation made at the Smokeout was given to the American Cancer Society and prevention services for people suffering from cancer.

Smock said, “We have some really great programs that you can get here locally here in Cincinnati that not all facilities have”.