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What's ahead

Start dates for upcoming classes to help smokers quit:

(All classes will be held in the Selby General Hospital Conference Room)

5 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1 (also can start Dec. 8).

5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5 (also can start Jan. 12).

1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4 (also can start Feb. 11).

5 to 6 p.m. Monday, March 1 (also can start March 8).

Source: Stephanie Davis, Washington County Tobacco Prevention Project.

Sherman Holder and Manuel Salazar didn't pay a dime for their lunch at Wendy's on Pike Street in Marietta Thursday - but it wasn't exactly free.

The two men got certificates for combo meals in exchange for turning in a pack of cigarettes as part of the Great American Smokeout. They also secured funding for future meals in the form of $20 gift cards presented to them when they each turned in a carton of cigarettes.

The annual promotion is a joint effort between Wendy's and Selby General Hospital's Washington County Tobacco Project to celebrate the annual smokeout event and encourage people to give up tobacco. People could bring a pack of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, or a carton of cigarettes, to the Pike Street Wendy's or the Belpre Wendy's to receive their reward.

"I heard about it, and I really want to quit smoking," said Holder, 48, of Waterford, a smoker for about 20 years.

"I slow down every once in a while," but haven't been able to stop, he said.

The story was much the same for Salazar, 46, of Marietta.

"I tried to quit a couple of times and still go back," he said.

Holder said nicotine cravings always brought him back when he tried to quit.

Stephanie Davis, director of the tobacco prevention program, offered Holder some tips on fighting those cravings, including drinking lots of water to help flush nicotine out of his system. Holder and Salazar both took information about upcoming classes to help tobacco users quit their habit.

The Great American Smokeout is a program of the American Cancer Society, intended to get smokers to quit on that day or make a plan to quit.

According to a release from the Memorial Health System, which includes Selby, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the nation. An estimated 438,000 premature deaths each year are caused by smoking, including 38,000 deaths among non-smokers as a result of secondhand smoke.

Half of all Americans who continue to smoke will die from smoking-related deaths, the release says.