Zoe Kaminski, Depew High School junior, is on a mission to educate her peers and reduce tobacco-use in her community.
According to Be Tobacco Free, more than 3,000 people under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette. 18% of high school students smoke.
Kaminski says she knows first hand what tobacco can do. She's had several family members die because of lung cancer.
The 16-year-old is an active school leader. She helped organize her school's Seen Enough Tobacco Day as an advocate for Reality Check of New York.
Students placed 77 pin wheels at the school to symbolize the lives lost everyday in New York State because of tobacco-use.
She also is a part of Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Yroswell Street Team to bring awareness about the dangers of tobacco-use.
"When I see people at Roswell who are dying because of things that were caused by cigarette smoking and tobacco use, it really makes my heart hurt knowing that these are preventable diseases and they weren't taking the steps to not have these diseases," she said.
