HEALTH : Stoked Not to Smoke : Every week hundreds of fifth-graders go to a Saugus camp to hike, run through an obstacle course, sing campfire songs--and learn to avoid tobacco.

Clara Ehfad, a fifth-grader at Knollwood Elementary School in Granada Hills, is climbing a 23-foot wall. As her hand and feet grope for toeholds, the 10- year-old mountaineer steadily ascends the steep precipice. Finally she reaches the summit, smiles triumphantly and is gently lowered to the ground.

“I couldn’t have done this if I smoked,” she notes, reflecting on her achievement. “I would have been out of breath. And I would have cancer.”

The climbing wall is one of dozens of outdoor activities offered at the “Smokefree Class of 2000 Campout” operated by Stanley Ranch, a 200-acre camp in Saugus, in conjunction with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Every week, hundreds of fifth-graders are bused to the camp, where they hike, run through an obstacle course, sing campfire songs under the trees--and learn not to smoke.

“Kids learn by doing,” says Barbara Dietsch, coordinator of the school district’s Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program. “The kids are able to enjoy nature, and they learn smoking impairs their ability to do that.”

The program began in mid-October and continues through June, enabling about 14,000 students to take part in one-day and three-day camp-outs. California smokers foot the bill for the anti-smoking field trips, as the program is funded by the Proposition 99 tobacco tax.

Today’s fifth-graders, who will graduate from high school in the year 2000, are not too young to be introduced to the hazards of tobacco, says Knollwood teacher Micki Bratman. “When they are in sixth grade, they start thinking they are hot stuff, and it’s too late to get at them,” she says.

The one-day camp-out crams hiking, an obstacle course, archery, petting zoo, arts and crafts and songs into a single morning and afternoon. A three-day program combines standard camp fare with an intense smoking-prevention curriculum, with lessons on how to politely but firmly say no to cigarettes and a skit called “The Price Is Life.”

“We get them out of the city and into the country for good old camp stuff,” says camp director Dave Branconier. “They learn how being healthy makes fun things easy to do.”

Camp counselors, who are trained in the anti-tobacco curriculum, gather kids around campfires to talk about the cardiovascular system and demonstrate the joys of hiking sans huffing.

At times they are even more direct in their approach. At one point the entire camp staff jumped on a stage to wail the “Smoking Blues.” The song is not likely to win a Grammy, but it had the kids snapping their fingers. Here’s a sample verse:

My fingers are yellow.

My teeth are, too.

My breath is stinky.

So what should I do?

We got the smoking blues.

We got the smoking blues.

Before the whirlwind camp-out winds to a close, bright yellow T-shirts commemorating their smoke-free day at camp are distributed to the students. They gather at picnic benches under the trees, where they munch on brown-bag lunches and write a letter to themselves, pledging to be smoke-free “from here to infinity.”

The program’s success in preventing a future generation of smokers won’t be known for years. But Knollwood student Kimberly French, 10, is positive she’ll never smoke.

“No way!” she shouts. “Smoking is dangerous. It’s terrible. It’s really gross. A smoker’s lung looks like somebody stepped on it.”

Her classmate, Ian Aronson, also 10, agrees. “I have heard about the hazards of nicotine,” the boys says thoughtfully. “It can kill you real fast. Smoking screws you up.”

When asked to think of things they would rather do than smoke, the students rattle off a long lists: “Homework, read, eat, play Nintendo, bike ride, run around, talk on the phone, take a nap, watch TV.”

“And be healthy!” Kimberly adds.