The annual American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout will take place Thursday on the main Quad and at Beckman Institute.  

Colleges Against Cancer and the University Wellness Center will team up for the event to encourage smokers to make a plan to quit smoking or to quit that day, according to the American Cancer Society’s website. The event takes place every year on the third Thursday of November.

This is the fourth year the Wellness Center has participated in the Smokeout, according to Michele Guerra, director of the University Wellness Center.

There will be two booths on campus. Colleges Against Cancer, a registered student organization, will staff a booth on the main Quad while the Wellness Center will staff a booth in the atrium of the Beckman Institute, Guerra said.

The booths will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Wellness Center booth will have quit kits, distracting activities and a cessation expert at hand. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America will also be at the booth hosting giveaways for those that plan to quit smoking. There will also be a concert at the Beckman institute at noon.

“For people who can’t come to a booth — they can contact our office. They can either come by and pick up a quit kit or we will send them a quit kit via campus mail,” Guerra said.

According to Guerra, the UI Wellness Center is planning on developing a brochure or a link on the Smoke-free campus website including tips for smokers that are intending to quit. Guerra added that she would like to include tips from former smokers at the booth.

“Its easy for us to tell people how to quit but sometimes the best advice comes from the ex-smokers, those who have been through it,” she said.