PARKERSBURG — A Parkersburg boy is earning a Boy Scouts badge while helping the community to save lives.
Andrew Wilkinson, 11, contacted the American Red Cross of the Mid-Ohio Valley in November in hopes of fulfilling a requirement for his Community Service Badge. He is now heading up a new Junior Red Cross group, said Sharon Kesselring, development director for the Red Cross.
“In talking with (Wilkinson), we discovered he is home schooled and decided to talk him into starting a Junior Red Cross,” Kesselring said. “He’s now working with us to get other home-schooled students involved with the Red Cross.”
Wilkinson said he decided to join the Red Cross because a friend is involved in the organization.
“It’s fun and saves lives,” he said.
There are about a dozen home-schooled students ranging in age groups from third grade to ninth grade who are part of the new group.
His mother, Teresa Wilkinson, said being part of the Junior Red Cross will not only help Andrew obtain his Boy Scouts badge, but will also open up the community of home-schooled students in the area.
“In the home school community, we always try to get the kids more involved in the community outside and this is a perfect way to do it,” Teresa Wilkinson said.
The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. blood donation drive Monday was the first event the Junior Red Cross worked on, but Kesselring said it will not be the last.
“This is the first of many projects we will be working on together,” Kesselring said.
Wilkinson has been working with the Red Cross since late November, but did not have much time to organize Monday’s blood drive because of holidays and challenges with a grant from the national American Red Cross, Kesselring said.
“We’re just starting and it is hard to gauge how things will go,” she said.
The group’s next project will be the Heroes program in March, Kesselring said.
“They will have more time to work on this and will be asked to raise $1,000 for the program,” she said.
Brian Adams, blood services coordinator with the Red Cross, said by joining the Red Cross now, the children are setting themselves up to be life-long volunteers and blood donors.
“The younger we have students involved, the more likely they will be to help us in the future,” Adams said. “There is a lot of excitement generated by the youth in this organization.”
Originally from the News and Sentinel
Contact author Jolene Craig at jcraig@newsandsentinel.com
