PERSONAL TESTIMONY
Supplies:
1 large piece of cardboard or thin plywood
Gray and black paint
Small group of silk flowers
Some type of bench
Directions:
Take your cardboard or plywood and make a tombstone; inscribe a fictitious name and dates. Be sure that the date makes the deceased 17 years old. Have all the lights out except a spotlight on the tombstone and bench. Enter the stage dressed casually carrying the flowers. Put the flowers in front of the tombstone and sit down on the bench that should be placed beside the make believe grave. Look out at the audience and start talking as if you are alone and thinking aloud.
You know it seems like only yesterday that Katie and I (use whatever name is on the tombstone) started Junior High School. We were so excited to be in Middle School and wanted so bad to fit in with the popular crowd. We started smoking. We really didn’t like it at first, but “Hey” it wasn’t drugs, just a cigarette. We only smoked socially; just when we were with the group. When I think of all the mints we ate just to try to cover up the smell of our breath so our parents wouldn’t know we were smoking. I guess you could say we became addicted and soon we were using our lunch money for cigarettes, sneaking, and smoking at home in the bathroom and basement. We both decided that when we started high school we would quit smoking and not worry about being a part of the “crowd.” The problem was that we did try to quit smoking when we started high school but – I guess we really didn’t want to or maybe the habit was so out of control we needed support.
Things were going great for us. We had a new group of friends and were involved in school activities but still smoked privately. Then it happened. Katie caught a cold – or at least that is what we thought it was. She started losing weight and had this horrible cough. Her mom took her to the Doctor. They did a chest x-ray, and they found this place on her lung. The next thing I knew they told me Katie was dying. This couldn’t happen. We had been told all the horrible things tobacco can do to your body, but – we’re young and that only happens to old people or at least that is what I thought. Only 4 months after they found the lung mass, Katie was gone. She suffered terribly, and the day she dies, I was so upset I went to the basement in my home to smoke just one more cigarette, but when I started to light it all I could see was Katie’s face. I could hear the words of the Doctor talking about smoking and lung cancer. At that moment, I knew I had to quit smoking, and I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to keep this from happening to someone else. I have started a smoke-free campaign in my high school. I tell everyone there is NO tobacco product worth the final price. DEATH! Exit the stage and have the spotlight only on the tombstone. The stage goes black.
Feel free to modify each activity based on participant size
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