"For 45 minutes you could hear a pin drop." That's how teachers describe the dramatic classroom presentations by Bob Carleton and Bob McHenry, two former smokers who want kids to know about their battle with addiction and the agony they now suffer.
Last spring the two men were active in the Tobacco Survivors program at the American Lung Association of California's Redwood Empire Branch in Santa Rosa.
McHenry suffers from advanced emphysema and Carleton lost his larynx due to cancer. When Carleton speaks using a vibrator device against a hole in his throat and McHenry demonstrates "Hank the Tank," his oxygen tank, the students are given a sobering, firsthand look at what can happen after years of tobacco use.
"I just want those kids to tuch the image of me away in their minds," McHenry says. "When they get pressured to smoke they can pull me out as an example of what can happen. Then I hope they choose not to smoke."
McHenry resents his emphysema, and he wants youngsters to know that. He tells them about the active life he had just a few years ago, and the life he has now, tied to oxygen tanks.
"I want to leave them with an impression so they choose not to smoke," McHenry says.