Tippecanoe Valley High School’s Voice club started last winter to advocate against tobacco use. Shown from left are Live Well Kosciusko Youth Coordinator Natalie Moore, Voice members Jetta Hughes, Colton Crabb, Christopher Marquez and Diego Gonsalez and Voice adult sponsor Mallory Eaton. Live Well Kosciusko gets state funding, which helps run Voice. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

AKRON — Tippecanoe Valley High School students want to let others know they shouldn’t use tobacco.

“It’s never too late to stop, and there’s always someone out there to help you. You’re never alone,” said senior Colton Crabb.

Crabb is one of the founding members of Valley’s anti-tobacco Voice club.

Voice is a program run by the Indiana Department of Health. Health advocacy organization, Live Well Kosciusko, receives state funding, which allows it to “help implement the club,” said Live Well Kosciusko Youth Coordinator Natalie Moore.

TVHS Assistant Principal Dayna Kolanowski and health and physical education teacher Mallory Eaton serve as adult sponsors for Valley’s chapter of Voice, which started last winter.

Crabb and fellow senior Jetta Hughes heard about Voice at a Kosciusko Youth Leadership Academy event and helped bring it to Valley.

They serve as members of Voice’s core team, along with juniors Christopher Marquez and Diego Gonsalez. There are about 10 others also in Voice, said Hughes.

Crabb said the core team helps “coordinate events and create the curriculum for what we’re doing.”

He also is serving on the Voice state ambassador group, helping “create the curriculum for the year for the entire state.”

So far, Valley’s Voice chapter has spoken to health classes for Tippecanoe Valley Middle School seventh and eighth graders. Students also spoke to children recently at the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office’s Camp HERO.

“That was exciting,” said Hughes of speaking to around 200 children at the camp.

Future plans for the club include speaking at Akron and Mentone elementary schools and “just having some night events when we come in and educate everybody,” said Crabb.

Voice generally meets biweekly, with the club meeting more often if there’s an event coming up.

Those involved with the club talked about the need for it as tobacco use is “an epidemic.”

“It’s an epidemic everywhere,” said Eaton. “It’s at every school, everywhere.”

Voice members noted their personal connections to tobacco.

Hughes said she started using it in middle school to cope with a personal issue. She’d been off of it for awhile when she heard about Voice.

“I just thought it was a really good program, and it’s been just really great to … teach kids about the harm of it and everything,” said Hughes. “I did student teaching my freshman and sophomore year, and I was in elementary schools and they were finding (vaping items) there; that was a big thing for me.”

“I was like ‘wow,’ that’s really sad, so it was just a big eye opener,” she added. “Just to help and just be in this group is really nice.”

Marquez said he joined Voice due to “the cause behind it.”

“My brother was really big into tobacco and that really changed him a lot. He’s stopped now and … he just wanted to share what he went through with me,” said Marquez. “That really motivated me to be a part of this group.”

Gonsalez noted he’s gained leadership skills from being in the club, which have helped him in other parts of life, like sports and academics.

“Once you build a reputation for people to look up to you and to depend on you for what they do … they follow your actions,” he said.

“It empowers them so much,” said Eaton. “I mean these are already kids that are active and care and are involved, but to see someone share their personal story and to see them just relate and care, like it’s just so much more.”

Moore added those ages 13-24 may find more information about quitting tobacco at livevapefree.com. Adults may text “READY” to 34191 and get “a couple of weeks of free nicotine replacement therapy,” she said.

She said people may also get free cessation therapy through the above sources.

Hughes, left, and Crabb spoke to kids at the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office’s Camp HERO recently. Photo provided by Natalie Moore.