The following message is from Pam Farr, National Chair of Volunteers:
November is very special at the American Red Cross. It is National Youth Involvement Month, a time to celebrate an important cadre of the Red Cross volunteer force, our youth volunteers.
Young Volunteers Met the Month’s Challenges
This year the National Youth Council set up a series of tasks, one for each week of November:
*Sign up four people for the American Red Cross Youth Wire.
* Register your school club.
*Learn what Red Cross youth are doing internationally.
*Find out how other non-profits can help your school club or youth group.
As always, American Red Cross youth were up for the challenge and met every request.
Our young volunteers proved how seriously they take their Red Cross service. In fact, youth volunteers created so much activity that the Youth Blog had a record-breaking number of hits — more than 800 visitors in one day.
Take a moment to reflect on the contributions made by youth and young adults. Disaster action team members, health and safety instructors, blood donors and recruiters — that’s the kind of service youth provide at the Red Cross—working shoulder-to-shoulder with older volunteers.
Support Youth Involvement Twelve Months a Year
We celebrate National Youth Involvement Month for a few short weeks, but young volunteers are fundraising and delivering Red Cross services 12 months a year. It makes strategic sense that chapter, Blood Services region and station leaders encourage adult volunteers, employees and peers to support and cheer on our youth throughout the entire year.
So, I offer the final challenge for National Youth Involvement Month. The challenge is to all of us who are too old to be youth volunteers: Work to strengthen youth involvement during the next 11 months.
Resources to build youth involvement are provided on www.redcrossyouth.org. The site includes the Youth Involvement Toolkit that will help you start, revitalize or strengthen your existing youth group. When National Youth Involvement Month rolls around again, we’ll have taken youth volunteerism and engagement to the next level.
Let’s give Red Cross youth the support they have so richly earned — not just in November — but all year long.
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