(December 17, 2004) — As Camp Max Straus in La Crescenta begins to fill with the cheerful sounds of students, everyone gets ready for the opening statements given by sophomore Marin Kakachev. Eleven Clark students and 80 Roosevelt Middle School students attentively listen to the PowerPoint presentation given by the KATS club members. During their weekend stay Dec. 3-5 at Camp Max Straus, KATS members educated the middle school students with project ABCD (Analyze, Beware, Create, Disseminate). ABCD was designed to educate the attendees about the harms tobacco and drugs can do to the body, said KATS advisor Judy Sanzo. Roosevelt school nurse Kath Nagel had real-life demonstrations of lungs, which intrigued all the students according senior Illya Williams. Nagel showed the students actual lungs that had been infested with tar and another lung that displayed the affects of living in a polluted city like Los Angeles. The attendees were separated into eight groups, with KATS members acting as counselors and mentors. With these teams, students participated in events, such as relays, bunny hops and educational assignments. “Our team building activities helped [KATS] and the students to learn to cooperate in a time managed setting,” said Kakachev. “We sketched, colored and hung our team posters.” KATS members also taught the students how to make cartoons and commercials about tobacco use. The students were assigned to various groups to make storyboard drawings about each presentation. According to Williams, most of the pictures illustrated ways to say no to smoking. The Clark students went back to Camp Max Straus to make the drawings into animations with AnimAction last Friday. The Roosevelt and Clark students expect to go back to Camp Max Straus sometime in January 2005 to demonstrate the animations. The camp was a source for the students to learn and go home to share the vital information. “The students got rid of their doubts about smoking. With these facts, they can educate others on the harms of smoking,” said senior Diane Valera.