Some local teenagers are hoping they can help keep future generations away from cigarettes.

Today some students from the Wausau School District’s “Teens Against Tobacco Use,” or “TATU,” traveled to three elementary schools to deliver anti-tobacco messages to third graders.

“We’re teaching them about tobacco, cigarettes, chew tobacco, second hand smoke and what goes into your body when you do those things,” said Grace LeVeque, a “TATU” teen.

The teenagers showed kids the difference between a smoker and non-smoker’s lung, sang them jingles to demonstrate how smoking affects the body and even had the children sign pledges saying they would never smoke.

The teens say they chose to talk to third graders because they felt the younger the students they could target, the more likely it would be that they could influence them not to smoke.