DeKALB | The American Cancer Society challenges smokers Thursday to throw out cigarettes, if just for one day.

The Great American Smokeout aims to provide smokers with information in the hopes they will quit for good, said Jennifer Briggs, media relations manager of the American Cancer Society’s Illinois division.

“[Smoking] is something I like doing,” said junior math major David Schmidt. “It started out when I was bored. I’d have a cigarette. When I was busy all spring break, I never got a craving.”

Junior English major Joe Durling said he has never tried smoking and just found out about the Great American Smokeout. Durling said one of his friends has made many unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking.

“I question the practicality of it as to whether or not having someone stopping smoking for a day is going to have a long-term effect,” Durling said. “Psychologically, in terms of behavior, without some sort of reward or reinforcement, it’s not going to last.”

Colleges Against Cancer, together with the American Cancer Society, will make chalk bodies outside DuSable Hall Thursday. Each body will feature facts about the toll tobacco takes on a person’s body.

Health Enhancement also will have tables set up in the Holmes Student Center from noon to 2 p.m., and resources available at the Chick Evans Field House from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., including “quit kits,” said Mary Strohm, Health Enhancement health educator.

The quit kits include quitting strategies and health information. Water bottles and chewing gum also will be included in the kits, Strohm said.

“I’ve never really wanted to quit,” Schmidt said.

An American Cancer Society survey said that about 22 percent of Illinois adult residents are smokers. About 70 percent of smokers nationally said they would like to quit smoking, while five to 10 percent are successful on any one attempt.

It takes most people five to seven attempts to quit smoking before they are finally successful, Strohm said.