In 1966, a Red Cross youth volunteer delivers new dresses to Lathrop Hall, a local juvenile facility, to be worn by the teenage girls attending the Red Cross-sponsored parties each week.

Once Upon a Time in Our Chapter

By Barbara Wilks,
Chapter Historian

Red Cross youth volunteers are the future of the organization, and they are eager to carry on activities that serve the community. Over the years, their projects have ranged from the traditional to the unique, not only helping others, but giving the youth an insight into life that they might not have gained in any other way.

Just as adults felt their responsibilities during World War II, so did young people. Students in more than 500 local Junior Red Cross school clubs filled educational boxes for children in war-torn countries. They put together Christmas boxes for the men and women in military service, and they stuffed toys and made wooden animals for the children of those same service personnel. At the same time, they took Red Cross preparedness courses and helped raise funds for war relief.

In 1966, a Red Cross volunteer at Los Angeles Trade Technical College recruited 20 friends for a project at Lathrop Hall, a local juvenile facility. The group visited the girls at the hall at least twice a week, holding “social rehabilitation” parties for them. To put the girls more at ease at the parties, the youth solicited appropriate dresses from the garment industry and gave them to the 56 grateful teenagers.

Two high school clubs took on “fix up” projects. In 1973, the Chatsworth High School club responded with paint and brushes to give a badly needed fresh look to a children’s home in the San Fernando Valley. Volunteers from the Red Cross Medic Club from Roosevelt High School used an incentive grant in 1975 to clean and fix up the homes of low income senior citizens in East Los Angeles.

In the 1950s and 1960s, they volunteered on bloodmobiles. After the Hungarian Revolt in 1957, they conducted Operation Penny Drop to raise funds to aid those affected by the conflict. In 1969, they held special events for children, a party at the Kenney Child Study Center and a carnival for children in Head Start Programs.

Youth have always been among our most enthusiastic and energetic volunteers, and we look to them to continue supporting the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles.