Natick Above the Influence (NATI) is a high school organization that seeks to combat substance abuse. The group’s mission is also to reimagine and reinforce what positive student social life should look like.

“We’ve done an amazing job growing the program,” said NHS senior Maya Fortune. This will be her second year serving as a NATI representative.

Broadening the group’s reach and its offerings has been part of that expansion. NATI student reps organize forums where they chat with high school peers and middle school students. Those events are geared toward educating others about the nature and hazards of substance abuse.

The group’s current big project is building a program to accommodate the safe disposal of vaping paraphernalia. 

Providing resources for vape disposal is an outreach effort that has double the impact.  Its stated goal, of course, is addressing an environmental concern.

Most vaping devices (pens in industry parlance) use lithium power cells to activate the release of nicotine and other substances in vapor form. Such batteries can cause fires and are considered hazardous to the environment.  

Nicotine too, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, is toxic and presents a risk to workers and the planet.

But those environmental warnings also serve as a stern harbinger of vaping’s hazards relating to human health. It’s a cautionary note worth reading—that the addictive chemical in cigarettes and vaping devices isn’t a substance to be taken (or inhaled) lightly.

“There’s no real solution to disposing vapes anywhere,” said Shresta Chakilam. “It’s, like, extremely hazardous.”  She is in her second year at Natick High School, and as a NATI rep also.

Part of the students’ mission too, of course, is to provide peers with direct help. To “Give them the resources they need if they want to quit,” said Chakilam. “Our whole goal is to show and provide them with the resources they need.”

NATI student reps began working on logistics for their vape disposal program last year. And toward that end, the group is slated to receive some much-welcome funding.

“We ended up getting this grant which is very exciting,” said Kiely Chiaruttini, a Natick High sophomore and NATI member. The group will allocate its $15,000 award toward funding its vape disposal program, and also use some of the grant money to bolster NATI’s educational programming.

Suitable locales must be scouted out and designated for the disposal sites, and the receptacles purchased as well. Then there’s the outreach effort aimed at informing peers about proper vape disposal, and how they can take advantage of NATI’s offerings.  

Charlotte Austin is also a NATI representative and a senior at Natick High School.

“We still have to work out the details,” she said. “A lot of this year is going into planning.”

Austin runs NATI’s Instagram account, a social channel the group uses to get the word out about its mission and keep peers informed about programs.

“It’s mainly just keeping up with what we’re doing with the club,” she said. 

Students like Austin and her peers are an indispensable part of the organization. They serve as ambassadors, representatives that bridge social and generational divides between teachers and parents one side, students on the other.

“Youth are an incredibly important part of that coalition,” said Katie Sugarman. She is Prevention & Outreach Program Manager for the Natick Health Department. “Lots of kudos reserved for the students.”

Sugarman also serves as Program Director for the Natick 180 Coalition, a substance abuse prevention organization which oversees groups like NATI.     

The group plans to start installing its vape disposal sites in the spring, and the details of that process are occupying much of the group’s attention these days. NATI believes their program will pave the way for similar disposal efforts and awareness elsewhere. 

“We’re still sort of working on those pieces,” she said. “I think other communities are going to be watching.”

Students seem to be taking notice too, at least with regard to public health warnings about the use of vapes and e-cigarettes. That, and policy and pricing measures, have reduced their use in recent years.

Elizabeth Chalfin cited surveys from this decade that show that decline in vaping among the younger cohort. She is Associate Project Coordinator for the Natick 180 Coalition.

“They are going downward,” she said, “in the right direction.”