Smokers looking for a reason to put out cigarettes for good will have their chance Thursday.

The 26th Annual Great American Smoke Out is “a national campaign to get people to commit to at least not smoke for one day. The hope is that [the day] will encourage them to quit for longer,” said Ed Lewis, co-chairman for the Ames Tobacco Task Force.

George Belitsos, co-chairman for the Ames Tobacco Task Force, said the group will be handing out smoking cessation brochures in locations around Ames Thursday.

Belitsos said more than 30 children from schools in Story County make up “The Teen Tobacco Task Force,” involved in the Smoke Out’s anti-smoking campaigns.

The students will have a memorial wall set up at North Grand Mall on Thursday and will hand out smoking-related literature.

“The wall is the names, faces and stories of people who have died of smoking-related causes,” he said.

Belitsos said the Task Force is also teaming up with a group of ISU students to wage a campaign against smoking.

The students are targeting the last place on campus to sell cigarettes — Onion’s convenience store in the Memorial Union.

“We’re the last school in the Big 12 to still be selling cigarettes on campus,” Belitsos said.

Lauri Dusselier, program coordinator for the Thielen Student Health Center, said the Student Health Advisory Committee will set up a booth outside Parks Library.

Information about smoking cessation and “quit kits” with gum and candy will be available at the booth, she said.

Dusselier said the Great American Smoke Out is particularly important on college campuses.

“Some students try cigarettes for the first time in college, and some students think they can smoke in college and quit after graduation,” she said.

Dusselier said smoking only during college is not realistic.

“In a recent study, five years after graduation, 80 percent of students were still smoking,” she said.

Dusselier said using patches, medications or other methods to quit smoking are individual choices.

“We’d look at the individual smoker and work out an individualized plan with them,” she said.

Support for smoking cessation is available all year long, Belitsos said. He said the group supports a help line, 1-866-U-CAN-TRY.

Lewis said the Ames West Hy-Vee Food and Drug, 3800 W. Lincoln Way, is sponsoring a turkey giveaway contest for local smokers who quit cold turkey in honor of the Smoke Out.

“Anybody who promises not to smoke on Thursday — and this is on their honor — gets put in a drawing to win one of 10 turkeys,” he said.