This summer, Denise Della's anti-tobacco campaigning efforts took her from Wailuku, Maui, to protest a Philip Morris shareholders meeting in New Jersey.

It was an extension of the volunteer work she does as a leader in state and national organizations aimed at protecting Hawai'i teens and Asian and Pacific Island communities from the tobacco industry's impact.

Her commitment to the cause has earned her the Outstanding Youth Advocate of the Year award from the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawai'i.

In addition to focusing on state, national and international issues, Denise also brings her efforts to a personal level and has had some success in getting friends to quit.

"I tell them how the tobacco industry has different strategies how to get kids to smoke," she said.

As junior class president and a member of the National Honor Society and other clubs and a dancer for Tihati, Denise has her hands full, but still finds time to travel to O'ahu and the Mainland for her tobacco-control work.

She is a state board member for the REAL — Hawaii Youth Movement Against the Tobacco Industry program. In summer 2004, she was part of the APPEAL Youth Fellowship Program, which focuses tobacco control efforts on Asian American and Pacific island communities.

The fellowship inspired Denise to create a public service announcement that discusses how Asian and Pacific island youth are targeted by tobacco companies.

"It's still in the process of getting on the air," she said.

In July, Denise was part of a group of 20 to 30 youths from across the nation who went to a Philip Morris stockholder meeting to take their cause to the executives. They were allowed into the meeting on a donated proxy.

"They were kind of mad," she said, noting that the meeting also drew thousands of protesting nurses.

Denise will speak at the upcoming Hawai'i State Tobacco Conference on O'ahu on Tuesday.

On the web: The REAL movement: www.therealmessage.net.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.