|
The Red Cross has a proud history of commitment to youth. Young people have demonstrated their value to the organization throughout its history. At the close of the 20th century, the American Red Cross re-affirmed its commitment to the young people of America by establishing a Youth Affirmation initiative. The Youth Affirmation vision is that the American Red Cross will provide the premier environment for youth and young adults to learn, practice, and exemplify humanitarian values. Its goal is to develop new youth programs, enhance existing programs, and involve young people in substantive ways that contribute to the ultimate success of the American Red Cross and the communities it serves. Today, Youth Affirmation programs at various sites around the country are taking the lead in reaching millions of young people by providing services targeted to their needs as well as engaging them in the mission of the Red Cross.
The "Little Six" pose for the camera in Waterford, Pennsylvania. |
The first known American Red Cross youth activity took place in Waterford, Pennsylvania, in 1884. Six children put on a play that raised over $50 which they donated to the then three-year-old American Red Cross. Red Cross founder Clara Barton used the money to aid victims of severe flooding on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. "Sometime again when you want money to help you in your good work," the children wrote to Barton, "call on the Little Six." Thus began the tradition of youth providing funds to the Red Cross to support humanitarian programs.
By the 1890s, some other countries offered junior memberships in their Red Cross societies. Here in America, the idea that "all schools . . . be organized into Junior auxiliary societies" was advanced in 1892 but failed to win national acceptance at the time. Instead, some individual Red Cross chapters set up their own "youth auxiliaries" which were tied to local schools. Students engaged in their own socially worthwhile programs and worked side-by-side with adults in disaster relief, fund-raising, and other chapter activities. In 1898, students in some parts of the country became involved in a war effort when they assisted adult Red Cross members in providing medical support and comfort to American soldiers and their families during and after the Spanish-American War.
It was wartime again that led to the formation of the nationwide American Junior Red Cross. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, some of the nation's leading educators and American Red Cross officials evolved a plan for a nationwide partnership between schools and the Red Cross. On September 15, 1917, President Wilson officially announced the formation of the Junior Red Cross and asked American youth, "Is not this perhaps the chance for which you have been looking to give your time and efforts in some measure to meet our national needs . . . ?"
Youth answered the President's question with a resounding, Yes! With individual membership costing only 25-cents a year, Junior Red Cross enrollment reached 8 million within its first year and peaked at 11 million in 1919. Of greater importance than the number of elementary and secondary students who became members were the many vital services they performed on their own and in concert with adults during the war. They made and collected clothing for war victims, produced hospital supplies, and built furniture for medical facilities and convalescent homes. For youth in war-torn areas overseas, they prepared and shipped "Friendship Boxes," containing school and personal comfort items. On the home front, they promoted food conservation projects and worked in Victory Gardens growing vegetables to add to the nation's food supply. They also stepped in to help local chapters perform their regular functions, including first aid training and disaster relief and they participated in all Red Cross membership and war fund campaigns. The Junior Red Cross made approximately 10 percent of the Red Cross products-everything from bandages to convalescent home furniture-that were produced during the war. Junior Red Cross contributions to the Red Cross during the war period totaled an amazing $3,677,380.
Although the war ended in 1918, the Junior Red Cross continued to provide assistance to war victims and refugees. A "National Children's Fund" was established in 1919 to provide "relief funds for rehabilitation of child life in war-stricken Europe." The Junior Red Cross also lent support to Red Cross efforts to fight the worldwide influenza pandemic that broke out in 1918.
While public support for the American Red Cross, including the Junior Red Cross, ran very high during wartime, need for such an organization became less apparent in peacetime. In fact, some argued that the Red Cross ought to fold up shop until another armed conflict justified its reemergence. But Red Cross leaders strongly rejected this notion. Instead, they focused on disaster relief, public health, and continuing aid to veterans still in need of medical and emotional attention after the war. They also recognized the value of the Junior Red Cross for teaching good citizenship and for instilling in youth a spirit of internationalism. Although Junior membership dropped significantly after the war, the National Children's Fund continued to support orphanages and educational and recreational programs in Europe and Junior Red Cross members continued to be active in many Red Cross programs at home.
The Junior Red Cross News for March 1925 featured children of Poland in text and pictures. |
Among highlights after the war, The Junior Red Cross News, the first of several Red Cross publications for young people, appeared in 1919 and became immensely popular. The first application of the National Children's Fund for domestic disaster relief occurred in 1920 when funds were distributed to children who were victims of a Midwestern tornado. Beginning in 1923, Junior Red Cross funds were used to support Indian schools in the American Southwest. On the international scene, the Junior Red Cross continued shipping Friendship Boxes overseas and initiated correspondence exchanges between American youth and young people in other countries. As an indication of their growing importance in the organization, Junior Red Cross delegates attended a National Red Cross convention as voting members for the first time in 1927.
In the next decade, membership in the Junior Red Cross fluctuated from a low of 6.6 million in 1933 to a high of 9 million in 1938. In the early 1930s, the Depression and the severe drought, which produced the "Dust Bowl" in the Midwest, dominated Junior Red Cross activities. The Junior Red Cross assisted in the distribution of surplus wheat and cotton, the collection of clothing and food, and the canning of fruits and vegetables. In the latter half of the 1930s, the Junior Red Cross focused on relief projects for children who were victims of domestic fires and floods. Activities included the operation of recreational centers, production and distribution of toys, clothes, and educational supplies, and the granting of financial aid from the National Children's Fund.
With the advent of World War II, Junior Red Cross membership surged again, along with a broad expansion of activities. Membership grew from 8.5 million in 1940 to almost 20 million by 1945. College units were added in 1942 at a time when virtually every campus in the country hosted some type of Red Cross activity, from organizing student groups to offering Red Cross training courses.
Junior Red Cross activities during World War II ranged from the production of clothing, toys, furniture, and art works to entertainment and recreational programs at military camps and hospitals. Junior Red Cross members participated in domestic conservation campaigns (saving and collecting waste paper, textile, metals, fats, and foods) and worked in Victory Gardens again. As before, they assisted individual chapters as staff aides, in kitchens and hospitals, with child care, in disaster services, with a bicycle corps as an adjunct to the Red Cross Motor Corps, on war fund campaigns, and, for the first time, in the recruitment of blood donors. The peak years of youth activity were 1942-43 when youth involvement in community action and international service projects were reported by 90 percent of all Red Cross chapters.
Following World War II, the Junior Red Cross faced the same problem it did after the First World War: how to sustain membership and a viable program in peacetime. As before, the Junior Red Cross concentrated on international service and domestic programs that provided public assistance and which nurtured good citizenship in the process. While some programs were traditional in nature, such as assistance to war veterans and their families, disaster relief, and public health, others were new. The Red Cross introduced an International Student Work-Study Program in 1946 which brought American and foreign secondary and college students together. The organization started a "High School Chest Program" in 1947 which sent school supplies to students who had lost them in natural disasters in this country and overseas. An International School Art Program was introduced that distributed student paintings interpreting American life to schools in other lands. The Red Cross set up Leadership Development Centers to provide training for junior and senior high school and college students.
Junior Red Cross members entertain young victims of 1963 flood in Ohio. |
Despite these programs, membership in the Junior Red Cross began a decline after World War II that only now is being reversed. Competition from other youth groups, such as the Boy and Girl Scouts and the YMCA, became more pronounced. Teacher union regulations, established in the 1960s, made Red Cross school programs an after-school activity to be conducted by teachers on a voluntary basis. The result was a decline in teacher involvement. While wars in Korea and Vietnam provided many opportunities for Red Cross service, they did not galvanize the nation into unified action as had the two world wars and the Junior Red Cross did not experience sharp new increases in membership. In general, student interest in public service and international affairs has not been high in an era of self-absorption that began in the 1960s and continues to some extent today.
Nevertheless, youth participation in the American Red Cross is an increasingly attractive option as new attitudes and programs have been introduced. Since the late 1960s, the blending of youth volunteers into the mainstream of Red Cross service has gained wide support and popularity. Name changes have also occurred in line with student preferences: the term "Junior Red Cross," while still used in a few localities, has been largely replaced by "Red Cross Club" and "Youth Corps." The Red Cross established a Youth Services unit in the 1970s to better address the needs of youth volunteers at the highest organizational level. In 1992, the Red Cross Board of Governors adopted a National Youth Agenda as a blueprint for national headquarters and local units to affirm their commitment to youth involvement in the Red Cross.
In keeping with the National Youth Agenda, Red Cross leadership announced a new campaign to attract and retain youth volunteers at a special Youth Affirmation Rally in 1999. Through its Youth Affirmation corporate strategy, the American Red Cross has affirmed its commitment and dedication to young people and sought to fully engage their ideas, commitment, and leadership in all aspects and levels of the organization.
Today, a National Youth Council (NYC) consists of 12 youth who represent young people in Red Cross field units and provide strategic advice to committees of the Board of Governors. NYC members collaborate with the Office of Youth and Young Adult Programs and Services at national headquarters for the expansion, development and implementation of youth activities. Service Area Youth Liaisons have been appointed to represent youth and young adults around the country and to support and coordinate youth initiatives in their areas. A Youth Content Committee, consisting of young people with proven writing and web design skills, communicate with each other over email and through bimonthly conference calls with national headquarters staff to plan Red Cross website content designed for youth. Each year, a youth is chosen to address the Red Cross National Convention. This speaker represents all Red Cross youth in addressing the hopes and achievements of young people as they meet the challenges of the future in serving their communities through the Red Cross.
Greater Arkansas Youth Council hosts a training session for youth in mass first aid, called "First Aid Frenzy." |
Today's civic-minded youth are involved at the local level in Red Cross clubs that help the organization fulfill its humanitarian mission. These clubs meet regularly and membership is open to all. Working closely with the local Red Cross unit, club members participate in Red Cross service projects that impact their community and the world. Activities include providing peer instruction in HIV/AIDS education and first aid training, organizing blood drives, assembling comfort and cleanup kits for those affected by disasters, and raising funds for disaster relief. Through clubs, youth discover many new opportunities for self-development in activities that will most effectively fulfill their community's greatest needs.
As it has done in the past, youth outreach extends to the international arena. In 2002, the American Red Cross announced the Measles Initiative National Youth Campaign. The aim of the Campaign is to empower youth and young adults to make a difference on the global stage through advocacy and fundraising for the Measles Initiative, a five year effort to reduce measles outbreaks in Africa to zero. The Youth Campaign builds on young people's passion for international causes and offers an opportunity to energize current volunteers and to attract new volunteers and donors to the American Red Cross. Throughout the span of the Initiative, young people are encouraged to use their creativity and energy to design and complete a variety of projects that directly impact fellow youth across the globe.
Young people represent both our future and the here and now. Youth engaged in Red Cross services and programs are experiencing first-hand the humanitarian values the Red Cross exemplifies. By such involvement they will become the organization's future leaders, service volunteers, blood donors, and community supporters.
__________________________
For more information about youth and the American Red Cross see:
Foster Rhea Dulles, The American Red Cross. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950. A general history of the ARC from its beginnings to 1950. Out of print but in most libraries.
Patrick F. Gilbo, The American Red Cross: The First Century. New York: Harper and Row, 1981. An illustrated history of the first century of the ARC, 1881-1981. Also out of print but in most libraries.
__________________________
For more information, contact us.
 Top of Page
| 
