Jessica Baldus, senior at Boone High School, knows firsthand the harmful effects of smoking.

“My father had a heart attack from smoking cigarettes,” said Baldus Thursday afternoon at the Tobacco Youth Summit in Ames. “My mother tried to quit but she couldn’t; she was addicted.”

Baldus, who is a youth representative for Youth and Shelter Services, has vowed to never smoke. Her reasoning — her parents do.

About 50 Story County teen-agers in sixth through 12th grade were at the Ames Boys and Girls Club Thursday to discuss the effect smoking has on Iowa’s youth. The summit, sponsored by YSS, was designed to educate Story County teens on how to regulate the tobacco industry.

“We’re trying to let tobacco companies know that we are out here, and we don’t like what they are doing,” said Andrew Goedeken, chair of the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Commission.

The teen-agers spent the day at the Boys and Girls Club participating in three workshop sessions called “Gyrate, Activate and Motivate.”

The gyrate workshop gave the students an opportunity to “be creative with ideas,” said Amanda Fenner, YSS facilitator.

“We want them to decide what messages they want to deliver to the tobacco companies and then deliver them,” she said.

The purpose of the activator workshop is for kids to understand the social norms of smoking and then change them, said Jody Kammin, coordinator for YSS.

“Younger kids have the perception that smoking is cool, and because of that they often overestimate the number of high-school- age kids who actually smoke,” she said.

Understanding the tobacco industry is the main focus of the motivator group, Goedeken said. The organizers want young people to know the tobacco industry targets teen-agers for the selling of their products.

“Many kids use tobacco products as a rebellious effort,” he said. “In Iowa, 27 percent of high school seniors use tobacco products, and 11 percent of students in sixth through 12th grade smoke cigarettes. Ultimately, we want to reduce the number of Story County kids who use tobacco products.”

Kammin said most of the children at the summit do not think smoking is cool, but they can make a difference with their peers. “If they go back to their homerooms and tell them about what we discussed, we could start changing perceptions,” she added.

Erin Peterson, employee of YSS for Boone County, said it is important to emphasize the down sides of smoking.

“We want to increase awareness of the negative sides of smoking and at the same time, get those that do smoke to reconsider,” she said.