SMOKE-FREE: `COSBY SHOW' ACTESS TELLS STUDENTS IN AREA OF DANGERS FROM TOBACCO USE

Despite her entrance on crutches after spraining her ankle playing basketball, Keshia Knight Pulliam was warmly welcomed Tuesday night by the chants and cheers of 25 fifth-grade students from area schools.

Pulliam, who played Rudi on NBC's comedy series "The Cosby Show," was welcomed by the students as they presented her with red, pink or yellow roses and shook her hand. Several asked for her autograph.

Pulliam, 14, who serves as spokesperson and honorary president of the Smoke-Free Class of 2000, encouraged the students to hold fast to their oath to eradicate cigarettes and tobacco products from their lives.

"We are the next generation," Pulliam said. "I tell them to stay smoke free so the next generation can be a healthy one.

"This was something I felt needed to be addressed," Pulliam said. "Nicotine is a drug which can be more addicting and more dangerous than crack-cocaine; we have to tell the kids of our generation to stay away from it."

Pulliam, who has been travelling around the country encouraging kids everywhere to say no to nicotine, said she hopes to stick with the class until they graduate in the year 2000. And what did she think of Cape Girardeau?

"It's kind of rainy here, but everyone here has been nice and warm," she said.

Pulliam's mother, Denise, travels with her daughter to each of her speaking engagements.

"By making kids aware of the hazards of smoking and tobacco in each school at such a young age, when peer pressure kicks in during the middle-school years, perhaps they will realize for themselves the dangers of smoking," she said.

The fifth-graders were treated to the buffet dinner and allowed to personally greet Pulliam after being selected as winners of a short essay contest on "Why I Want to be on the Welcoming Committee for (Pulliam)." The winning essays were typed and complied into a booklet which was presented to Pulliam at the reception.

Also welcomed at Tuesday's reception was Tony Coleman, a St. Louis police officer who has written a play ostracizing the effects of smoking on the young generation.

"It's a fun kind of slap-stick parody with a message," Coleman said. "It shows that there isn't always truth in advertising and promotes doing what's right for your body and your life."

The play, called "Smoking Doesn't Pay," will be presented to more than 900 fifth-graders from area schools today at 12:30 p.m. at the Show Me Center.

"The community involvement in Cape Girardeau is really great," Coleman said. "The community cares about their children and is doing what they can to make a difference in their lives. That's real nice."

Coleman is a DARE officer in St. Louis who works with kids on a daily basis. Some of the cast members in his play are students he had met through programming within St. Louis schools.

Cindy McCormick, co-chairman of the Smoke-Free Class of 2000, said that the area fifth-grade students are excited about the project and dedicated to its successful completion.

"We try to have at least two events every year for the kids," she said. "Each year, when graduation rolls around, the students are one step closer to their goal and become more and more proud of their efforts."

The Smoke-Free Class of 2000 started five years ago in Cape Girardeau as an offshoot of the city's Vision 2000 program. Area students pledged to remain smoke-free throughout their school career, and hopefully for the rest of their lives. It is sponsored locally by the Coalition on Smoking and Health, American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, Saint Francis Medical Center and Vision 2000.

Sarah Stricker, a fifth-grade student from Washington School, said that she felt her class was setting a good example for younger students.

"You get to try and influence other kids not to smoke," she said. In her winning essay, she said that Pulliam was her favorite character on "The Cosby Show" and that she liked making new friends.

Stricker's mother, Judy, works for St. Francis Hospital - one of the sponsors of the Smoke-Free Class. She said that she can see the effects the program is having on the children.

"At the first `graduation' ceremony when they were in third grade, there were two students in the class who were smokers," Stricker said. "They weren't allowed to come to the ceremony.

"You hope that by reinforcing the message year after year, it will stick with them," she said. "After you start to smoke, it is so hard to quit; that's part of what this is all about. And if we have some fun along the way, that's great too."