|
Scholarship Recipients Share Thoughts on Red Cross Youth Volunteering
Janeen Orvosh, Special to RedCross.org
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 — Every year, the American Red Cross awards the Navin Narayan Scholarship to two youth volunteers from across the nation.
As the process begins to select this year’s scholarship awardees, the most recent scholarship recipients – Radharani De from Jamestown, N.C., and June-Ho Kim from Cupertino, Calif., share their thoughts on youth volunteering.
“I have always wanted to make a positive impact on my community, and I thought the Red Cross would enable me to do that,” said De, who already has been a Red Cross volunteer for three years.
De served as founder and president of her school’s Red Cross club along with serving as the youth representative on the Board of Directors at the High Point/Thomasville Red Cross Chapter.
“On several occasions, I have known that somebody was directly affected by me in a positive way, one of the best feelings one could ever experience,” she said when asked what she liked most about being a Red Cross volunteer.
Kim, who has been a Red Cross volunteer through most of his high school career, feels that he truly became a youth volunteer when he participated in his first Red Cross event – a booth at a Mexican-American heritage festival where he taught children the basic skills of disaster safety.
During his time in the Santa Clara Valley chapter, Kim founded a Red Cross club in his high school. He also joined the youth executive board of his chapter and served as a service projects coordinator.
“Many of the opportunities I have had as a Red Cross volunteer, I attribute to the Red Cross’ commitment to promoting youth leadership and volunteerism,” he said. “Youth are leaders not only of the future but of the present in the Red Cross.”
To learn more about youth volunteer opportunities with the Red Cross, visit the “Youth Services” section on www.redcross.org or contact your local Red Cross chapter.
The American Red Cross helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Last year, almost a million volunteers and 35,000 employees helped victims of almost 75,000 disasters; taught lifesaving skills to millions; and helped U.S. service members separated from their families stay connected. Almost 4 million people gave blood through the Red Cross, the largest supplier of blood and blood products in the United States. The American Red Cross is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. An average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested in humanitarian services and programs. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money, and blood to do its work.
Related Content:
|
