School officials tried appealing to students' vanity in the latest anti-smoking effort by showing them how they would look after a lifetime of smoking cigarettes.
Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School freshman Brian P. Odiorne, 15, sees his class picture, and then how he'll look at age 72 if he smokes or becomes obese. The school leased aging software to show students how poor choices could affect their looks. PALMER – Students at Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School got a glimpse of their future selves if they became obese, smoked cigarettes or spent too much time in the sun, and it wasn’t pretty.
“It was awful. There were spots everywhere, wrinkles. My face was chubbier,” said Corina L. Dembowski, 17.
“It wasn’t pretty. Everyone looked kind of bad,” said Ashlee M. Douillard, 17.
For “Kick Butts Day” last month, grants manager Christopher C. Pope leased high-tech aging software so students could see firsthand how their faces would be ravaged by smoking, the sun or by gaining too much weight.
Students could choose up to two out of three lifestyle factors (smoking, obesity or sun) and their results broadcast on the big screen during lunch for everyone to see. Dembowski and Douillard chose sun and obesity damage.
Pope reported that approximately 50 students signed up, and gave up their lunch and social time to see their faces age 60 years.
The software, developed by AprilAge.com, gradually aged the student up to age 72. The project was adopted by the junior health class, of which Dembowski and Douillard are members. They learned the software and tested it on each other before the March 24 unveiling in the cafeteria.
Pope said the school previously tried “scare tactic” approaches to keep kids from smoking, such as showing a smoker’s blackened lungs. This time, they tried appealing to their vanity. He hopes that the “CSI-style” software will make a bigger impact on their future decisions, and may even convince some who smoke to give it up.
“We’ve done all the other kinds of anti-smoking things, and their response is, ‘Yeah that won’t happen to me.’ But to see yourself age could make a difference,” Pope said.
To advertise the event, junior Melissa L. Landry, 17, said the health shop made posters, and Pope said he talked about it on announcements. Dembowski said all sorts of students tried out the software. Pope said students were riveted to the screen as they watched their peers “age” before their eyes.
“The program was supposed to scare you straight,” said Alexander A. Burbee, 17, another junior health class member.
Landry said the students who chose “smoking” as their vice aged the worst in the software.
Dembowski and Landry said the computer program made an impact, as students were talking about the pictures all week. They said some students said they are going to stop tanning, and a few talked about cutting back on smoking.
Freshman Brian P. Odiorne, 15, said he wanted to do it just to see how he would look in the future. He said the image of himself as a wrinkled, obese old man was shocking, and funny. Brian said he thought that bringing the software to Pathfinder was a good idea.
If one student is prevented from starting smoking, or if one stops smoking as a result of the program, it served its purpose, Pope said. He said buying the software is too expensive, but he plans on looking into grant opportunities, or possibly sharing the cost of the purchase with other schools.