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Pamela McLoughlin New Haven Register [7/07/03]

When Maryellen Bolcer pulled out her jar of old, stinking cigarette butts, Alexis Ellis, 18, of Hamden took a whiff and got the urge to throw up.

Then Bolcer pulled out her plastic bags containing the healthy lung of a nonsmoker and the black lung of a smoker with emphysema and cancer.

"I’m looking and saying, ‘Oh no, not me,’" Ellis said.

It was all a bit traumatic, but for the better, because Ellis, who started smoking at age 14, has gone more than four weeks now without a cigarette.

"I feel much better and I’m very grateful … The things she told us about were really freakin’ me out," said Ellis, a senior at Collaborative Alternative High School in North Branford.

That kind of response puts a big grin on Bolcer’s face, because other than her family, there’s nothing dearer to her than her teens and the Teen Smoke Stoppers program she brings to students in about 80 school systems in Fairfield and New Haven counties.

Bolcer estimates she has reached 30,000 students at the elementary, junior high, high school and college levels and of those, 5,000 have participated in her smoking cessation program.

Even though all her teens may not quit, Bolcer says her success rate is "100 percent," because the No. 1 way to stop smoking is to keep trying.

"If we can get a teenager to have a quitting experience by the age of 18, they (likely) won’t smoke for another 20 years," Bolcer said. "I never judge them, I just ask them to show up for class. … I don’t even focus on the mortality thing. I focus on what else they could be doing."

Having all the props is one thing, but all who have seen her in action say Bolcer has a gift for getting through to the younger set. Her booming voice and quick smile help, as she talks through the steps that lead to quitting.

"She’s literally a breath of fresh air — a one-woman army," said Sloan Gorman, a social worker at the Alternative Education program in Milford.

Gorman said that of about 90 students in the school, one is a non-smoker. After two sessions, Bolcer created a groundswell of interest in the subject to the point where none of the students feel it’s not cool to quit, Gorman said. Eight students are trying to kick the habit and she’ll likely return next year.

"She explains to them that cigarette smoke covers up the emotions of angry teenagers and they are angry and they’re supposed to be angry," Gorman said.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, one of Bolcer‘s biggest supporters, said he’s "enormously impressed" with how youths react to her.

"It (the program) is one of the few rays of light and good news in the anti-smoking crusade in Connecticut," Blumenthal said.

Bolcer "realizes that lectures from suit and tie experts or speakers will not hit home with young people whose motive in beginning to smoke is often to be cool, glamorous, sexy, with it," he said.

Blumenthal has unsuccessfully fought to get the General Assembly to allot more money for programs from funds the state receives from tobacco companies. Teen smoking in the long run is the single most costly public health problem in the state today. It costs thousands of lives and billions of dollars, he said.

Bolcer’s program is funded by Swim Across the Sound, a charitable arm of St. Vincent’s Medical Center that helps cancer patients and families.

Teens start smoking for many reasons, said Bolcer, who started smoking at age 12 and quit in her late 20s after seeing her parents become ill from smoking.

Most commonly, it’s peer pressure.

Kate McLaughlin, 18, a senior at Stratford High School, started smoking at 15 with friends.

"As the years went on, I got into a routine. I really didn’t enjoy it, but it was so much of a routine that I did it," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin went to two sessions of Teen Smoke Stoppers before she quit about a year ago.

Today, she helps Bolcer by sharing her stories with other teens.

McLaughlin, an athlete, said she’s better at softball now and her boyfriend is much happier because he hated the habit.

Bolcer has been teaching adults how to quit since 1986 and finds the big difference between those and teen smokers are that the lives of adult smokers often revolve around cigarettes.

"The reason I really love it is that teenagers hate smoking," Bolcer said. "They realize they stopped doing the things they loved to do…The cigarette is taking all their mind space up."

Anyone interested in Bolcer visiting a school can call (203) 576-5500, Wellness Services at St. Vincent’s Medical Center.