Tag: youth

Leading with Purpose: Meet Makayla Anderson, Red Cross Youth Powerhouse 

When Makayla Anderson first applied to volunteer with the Red Cross, she was 14 years old, shy, and just starting high school. A phone call with a Volunteer Services screener turned into a life-shaping conversation—one that set her on a path she never expected. “I wasn’t sure I could help because of my age and little experience,” Makayla recalls. “But he said, ‘I believe in you and you will go far.’ That moment meant everything.” 

And go far, she has. 

Over the last four years, Makayla has become a driving force in youth engagement with the Red Cross—founding a club at her virtual high school, starting the region’s Youth and Young Adult Council (YAYAC), and stepping into national roles including her current position as a Youth Action Campaign (YAC) Intern with the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) team. Along the way, she’s brought creativity, courage, and compassion into everything she does. 

Makayla pictured with fellow members of the Red Cross Minnesota and Dakota’s Youth and Young Adult Council (YAYAC). Pictured left to right: Erik, Jay, Joel, Makayla, Shaivi and Alan (not pictured Nuna and Dawson). Photo submitted.

Finding Her Voice Through Service

Makayla’s journey began with behind-the-scenes support in Volunteer Services—working in Volunteer Connection and helping screen new volunteers. She gradually took on more responsibility, eventually creating her own Red Cross club at school and joining the IHL Youth Action Campaign. That’s when things clicked. 

“I never thought I was really interested in law,” she says. “But hearing from speakers at the national YAC Summit and working 1-on-1 with Red Cross staff opened my eyes to a new way of leadership.” 

It was also where she learned how to blend purpose and creativity—skills that came to life in her standout YAC project: a virtual art show on the theme of nuclear conflict. As a lifelong artist, Makayla leaned into her passions and invited others to explore difficult topics through visual expression. The show reached across the globe—from Minnesota to Dubai—and included an educational presentation on IHL and the role of art in activism. 

Makayla’s engagement on social media plays a key role in promoting the activities and programs of the region’s Youth and Young Adult Council (YAYAC).


Creating Change, One Youth at a Time 

After seeing the difference youth leaders were making in other regions, Makayla realized her own region was missing a critical piece: a strong network for youth engagement. Rather than waiting for someone else to fill that gap, she helped build the Minnesota and Dakotas Youth and Young Adult Council (YAYAC) from the ground up.  

“I don’t think it has too much to do with how confident you are with yourself,” she reflects. “It’s about your ability to take action and how well you understand the steps it takes. If you care enough about something, you just start eating it a bite at a time.” 

She’s now leading the council with big goals: to grow awareness, host engaging events, and make sure the youth voice is part of Red Cross decisions across departments. 

Wisdom Beyond Her Years

Makayla has also faced her share of challenges—especially working in adult-dominated spaces. “The biggest thing to remember is to listen and learn,” she says. “You don’t need to be the loudest in the room to make an impact.” 

She’s found guidance in mentors like Mark Giammona, Ashley Sheehy, and Tracy Elder, and credits them with shaping both her leadership style and her vision for the future. “I’m a Nursing Assistant now,” she says, “but I have high hopes of getting a job with the Red Cross in IHL one day. This work brings me a sense of fulfillment I haven’t found anywhere else.” 

Makayla pictured with one of her mentors Mark Giammona, Volunteer Engagement for the Minnesota and Dakotas Region, whose guidance has helped shape her leadership style and inspired her vision for the future

Fueling Her Fire

While much of her free time goes toward volunteering, Makayla still makes time for creative pursuits. She’s a published poet and an avid dog walker, often spotted strolling around town with her pups. “This is my fun!” she laughs. 

And when it comes to advice for other youth thinking about getting involved, her message is clear:  

“Find your passion, run toward it, and don’t take no for an answer. There will be slammed doors and setbacks but remember who you are and why you started.”

Learn more about youth like Makayla making a difference at Red Cross IHL Youth Action Campaign. 

Want to learn more about International Humanitarian Law through the lens of pop culture? Check out our IHL YouTube channel and explore the rules of war through Andor, Star Wars, Saving Private Ryan, Ghostbusters, House of the Dragon, and Godzilla. 

Learning Through Service: South Dakota Students Support Red Cross Wildfire Response

In late January, Patty Brooks, Executive Director of the Eastern South Dakota Chapter of the Red Cross, got a touching voicemail from two students at First Presbyterian Church in Sioux Falls. They were reaching out to invite someone from the Red Cross to come to talk to their youth group about how the organization was helping with wildfire relief efforts in California.

Not long after that, Patty received an email from Kathie Douma, the church’s Director of Children’s Ministry. Kathie shared that her first through fifth-grade students were working on a service-learning project, where they were asked to identify a need in their community and come up with ways they could help out. After thoughtful discussion, the children chose to focus on the California wildfire relief efforts and the role of the American Red Cross in providing support.

Project announcement from the First Presbyterian Church newsletter.

Red Cross volunteers Patti Vaska and Katie Gilmore, both retired nurses, met with the students to explain how the Red Cross responds to disasters like the LA wildfires. They helped the children imagine what it would be like to evacuate their homes and stay in a group shelter, offering insight into the experience from a young person’s perspective.

“It was a really fun evening,” said Katie Gilmore. “We were honored to speak with the students – it was unlike anything we’d done before. It was a meaningful way to involve youth in community service and explain how the Red Cross supports people during disasters.”

Inspired by the discussion, the students decided to take action in two ways: by creating handmade greeting cards for wildfire shelter residents and by raising funds to support the Red Cross relief response.

The students took the lead on the project. They requested permission to use church supplies to make the cards and to collect donations throughout the month of March.

Handmade greeting cards created by the youth of First Presbyterian Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for LA wildfire shelter residents. Photo submitted.

“Each Sunday in March, the kids took turns speaking to the congregation about the Red Cross’s recovery efforts in Los Angeles,” said Douma. “They didn’t just want to raise money – they also wrote prayers and led the congregation in prayer each week for the people of LA and those involved in the recovery.”

By the end of the month, the students had raised $1,500 – meeting their fundraising goal! They also created more than 125 handmade cards and invited parishioners to add personal messages of encouragement after services.

Youth from First Presbyterian Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota hard at work creating hand-made personal greeting cards. Photo submitted.

“These students are amazingly industrious and generous, and we really appreciate their hard work for the children and families that survived the LA wildfires,” said Patti Vaska. “We thank First Presbyterian and their parents for mentoring our next generation to roll up their sleeves and open their hearts at a young age – it’s so beautiful!”

In May, these cards were distributed to wildfire survivors at several Multi-Agency Resource Centers (MARCs), where families could come in for additional resources, support and assistance.  

Group photo of the students at the final meeting to reflect on their accomplishments and celebrate the meaningful impact of their service-learning project. Photo submitted.

“I was so moved by the children’s efforts,” said Erica Fausto-Aguado, Red Cross Regional Disaster Officer for Los Angeles. “I’m so impressed and grateful for the generosity of these young people. How compassionate of them to let these survivors know that they are being thought about and haven’t been forgotten.”

After the donations were made and the cards distributed, the students gathered for a final meeting to reflect on their accomplishments and celebrate the project’s impact.

“It was so heartwarming to see our youth learn about people in need and discover ways they could make a difference,” Douma expressed. “I was incredibly impressed by how the entire project came together.”

This marked the fourth year of doing a service-learning project, and it was the first time the students chose to address a disaster in another state. In previous years, their efforts focused on local needs — such as providing food for those facing hunger in their community, creating activity packs for children in the hospital, and assembling “birthday in a bag” kits for children in the foster care system.

“As part of the project, the students discussed the meaning of community and collectively agreed that people across the country, even if geographically distant, are still part of their broader community,” Douma explained. “Motivated by that belief, they were eager to help.”

You can help by giving to Red Cross Disaster Relief. Your gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters, big and small. Visit RedCross.org/mndaks, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a donation.

Waterville, MN Community Unites for Successful Blood Drive After Flooding

Waterville, Minnesota, a community impacted by recent flooding and still recovering, came together to donate blood on Monday. “We have a lot of helpful people in our small community,” said Barb, a former Red Cross volunteer and blood donor who helped organize blood drives for nearly 24 years.

Barb, former Red Cross volunteer, Waterville, MN, Aug. 12, 2024.

The blood drive filled up quickly and they had to add appointments to accommodate those who wanted to roll up a sleeve. In fact, the community surpassed the blood drive goal – reaching 110% of expected donations.

The drive was sponsored by the high school student Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) group in the Watertown, Elysian and Morristown school district. The group tries to host five blood drives a year, and this was the first drive in Waterville since the flooding in June. The next drive is already scheduled for November.

“We try and make it fun!” exclaimed Tricia, the group’s advisor. Sometimes they have special T-shirts made, special treats for donors, or themes to make it more interesting. “We try to get 16 year-olds to become first-time donors.”

Red Cross volunteers Jocelyn, Tricia and Megan, Waterville, MN, Aug. 12, 2024.

Donors included Megan, a high school senior and Red Cross volunteer, who is already a Certified Nursing Assistant and plans to pursue a career in healthcare. “I started donating because it gave me another way to help people that really need it,” she says. “When someone is nervous about donating I just remind them of how they could be saving someone’s life.” Megan and Jocelyn, a student lead for the blood drive, helped check-in donors.

We’re amazed that people affected by their own disaster have stayed committed to helping others through blood donation this summer as we are facing an emergency shortage. Thank you, Waterville and surrounding areas for giving back in such a meaningful way!

Megan, blood door and Red Cross volunteer, Waterville, MN, Aug. 12, 2024

You can help, too. Click here to make an appointment to give and help patients counting on lifesaving blood products being available.

Leading For Change: Amy Leopold Receives National Red Cross Youth Leadership Award

Amy Leopold

For more than four years, Amy Leopold has been a committed Red Cross volunteer. And this year, her commitment was recognized by receiving the American Red Cross’s 2023 Navin Narayan Award for Excellence in Youth Leadership. The award is a prestigious honor presented to a youth volunteer who demonstrates exemplary leadership skills and Red Cross service. Among the 100,000 youth volunteers serving with the Red Cross across the country, only one receives the award each year.

Ms. Leopold began volunteering as part of her Community Day volunteer requirement at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. She felt so drawn to the Red Cross mission that she became a youth board member at her local Red Cross chapter, also in Duluth. Since then, she has participated in more than a dozen different Red Cross program areas, ranging from smoke alarm installation, Veteran ‘stand down’ events, and hands-only CPR to Disaster Action Team response and calling blood donors. She has mentored several other students from her college, resulting in more than 20 new volunteers, and she puts her writing skills to important use through ‘thank you’ letters to volunteers, financial donors and partners that support the Red Cross mission.

“Whether through social media or her willingness to share her story, Amy consistently demonstrates to the community and her peers that there is a place in the Red Cross for young volunteers,” said Dan Williams, executive director of the American Red Cross serving Northern Minnesota. “She is an outstanding youth leader who continues to work to change the way youth in our Red Cross region connect with our humanitarian mission.”

National American Red Cross Presidet and CEO Gail McGovern and Amy Leopold, recipent of the 2023 Navin Narayan Award for Excellence in Youth Leadership, April 2023, Washington, D.C.

Leopold was also honored this year with the Northern Minnesota Red Cross chapter’s “Marguerite Grams Memorial Leadership Award” in recognition of exemplary leadership skills for her service as chair of the chapter’s mission committee.

The Navin Narayan Award for Excellence in Youth Leadership

Navin Narayan, a former chair of the American Red Cross National Youth Council, was a dedicated, compassionate and innovative youth volunteer. Mr. Narayan began his involvement with the Red Cross when he was only 14 years old by cleaning mannequins used to teach CPR, and quickly sought ways to become more involved. As a national disaster relief volunteer and trainer, international speaker on human rights, and tireless advocate for Red Cross causes, he changed the way youth are now connected to the American Red Cross. Tragically, at the age of 23, Mr. Narayan lost his battle with a rare form of cancer, but his legacy continues to live on through two honors the American Red Cross currently gives to youth volunteers in his name: the Navin Narayan Award for Excellence in Youth Leadership and the Navin Narayan College Scholarship.

Learn more about Red Cross volunteer opportunities for youth.

May is Military Appreciation Month

As part of our Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) activities, we’re proud to celebrate national Military Appreciation Month with service members, veterans and their families.

The American Red Cross has a long history of serving the U.S. military going back to the Civil War. Our founder, Clara Barton, also known as, “the angel of the battlefield,” participated in 16 separate battles during the war.

This proud service to our Armed Forces continues today in our region:

✔️ In April 2022, the Minnesota and Dakotas Region assisted with 56 emergency communications requests. The Red Cross is federally chartered to handle all emergency communications to our active-duty forces.

✔️ In April, we participated in deployment events where 54 military members and their families received much needed resiliency training. The Red Cross provides much needed resiliency training to deploying units and their families.

✔️ We also follow up with family members of deployed service members. In April, for example, 240 critical community service cases were completed.

🤗 These services happen only with the outstanding efforts of our SAF volunteers. We’d like to share our profound thanks to them for their generosity of time, kindness and expertise. You’re the best!

📷 This May, Red Cross youth volunteers delivered messages of gratitude and Girl Scout cookies at Veterans Affairs clinics in Hibbing, MN and Superior, WI and to VA homes in Silver Bay and Fergus Falls. Photo credit: Dan Williams/American Red Cross

Red Cross: One of my favorite experiences

Guest post by Christina Li

Leah, Christina and Caitlyn

Volunteering has always been a big part of my life, and volunteering with the Red Cross has definitely been one of my favorite experiences. Two years ago, I joined the Woodbury High School Red Cross Club. Of course, me being me, I had to drag a couple of friends along: first Leah, and then Caitlyn. We started off with basic projects like holiday cards for veterans and blood drives, but pretty soon us three (Caitlyn, Leah, and me) started looking for extra opportunities. We worked together on the Pillowcase Project and helped raise money for hurricane victims (which hopefully we’ll be running next year, fingers crossed). When we were presented with the opportunity to participate in the International Humanitarian Law Youth Action Campaign, we were so excited. All of the projects we had done so far had been planned step by step for us, so this was the perfect chance to take control and leave an impact on those around us.

On the day of the training, we all got up super early and drove to the Red Cross office in Minneapolis. To be honest, we had no idea what to expect, and for me at least, I had no idea what International Humanitarian Law was. A little nervous, we walked into the classroom and… no one was there. Well, no students at least. At first, it was a little awkward being only 3 students in a room with 4 adults but, looking back, it was amazing to have that one-on-one type of learning environment. We were able to ask questions at anytime and launch into full scale debates about whatever we wanted. We talked about what International Humanitarian Law (IHL) was, what the Health Care in Danger (HCID) initiative was for, and, most importantly, what we could do about it. Being best friends with Leah and Caitlyn, the moment we 3 girls were set free to start designing our own campaign we all blurted the exact same idea. The hard part was in the details. Dr. Haji Dokhanchi, our instructor and a Red Cross volunteer, was incredibly helpful and we were able to pick his brain on what he thought would be most successful. We walked out of class practically talking over each other and bursting at the seams with different ideas.

Although we’re only sophomores, all of our schedules are filled with school and extracurricular activities, which made it really hard for us to work on our presentation all at the same time. We resorted to working on chunks at a time, and with the help of Dr. Nour Sinada, our club adviser, we finished our script and were ready to present. After countless emails, March 18th finally came, day one of our week of presentations. Teaching wasn’t a new experience for any of us, but teaching a class of 30 squirmy freshmen definitely was. We had become very passionate about the topic, and we tried to convey that in the way that we presented.

A week later, we had taught around 270 students in classrooms and reached out to over 1,000 students over social media. During and after the campaign, we were met with so many supportive students and faculty. We even had 46 students contact us about either joining the club or volunteering for the Red Cross. We couldn’t be more thankful for this opportunity to raise awareness for the Health Care in Danger campaign and for all of the people who have helped us accomplish our goal. We’d like to specifically thank the teachers who lent us their classrooms along with Dan Williams and Dr. Haji Dokhanchi, both of the Red Cross. This has been one of the most vigorous projects we have ever taken on, but it also became an extremely positive experience for our team and club, as well as for also our school and community.

Thank you all for this wonderful experience!

Eden Prairie Students Lift Military Heroes Hearts

(R to L) Students Shea Brennan, Jenny Leestma, and Bella Wheeler, with regional executive Phil Hansen (far left).
(R to L) Students Shea Brennan, Jenny Leestma, and Bella Wheeler, with Red Cross northern Minnesota regional executive Phil Hansen (far left).

Last fall, two Eden Prairie High School business clubs engaged their entire school in a massive Holiday Mail for Heroes card-signing event for the American Red Cross.

The group, led by seniors Jenny Leestma, Bella Wheeler and Shea Brennan, worked with their principal to distribute blank cards to each homeroom, hang posters and banners throughout the school building, and even created a program where students could sign multiple cards in exchange for required volunteer hours. In the end, the students collected over 1,500 cards for deployed soldiers and veterans and estimated that 1,000 students participated in the project.

After the event, students read through the signed cards to ensure all messages were appropriate. “We saw that [the project] touched the students when we began to read through the cards and saw the amazing thought and effort put into so many of them,” says Jenny Leestma, one of the student leaders of the project. “It was truly a blessing to contribute to such an amazing program!”

Holiday Mail for Heroes is an annual event coordinated by the Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces Department, which supports members of the U.S. Military, its veterans and their families. This past year, people from across the country sent a record number of 2.1 million cards, including the cards from the Eden Prairie High School students.

The American Red Cross also has additional way for groups of youth to get involved with our programs. For more information please visit our website.

Thank you to the students at Eden Prairie High School for enthusiastically participating in Holiday Mail for Heroes, and extra thanks to the DECA/BPA students who worked so hard to make this year’s event a huge success!

Story by Lisa Joyslin, Volunteer Resources Director, American Red Cross Northern Minnesota Region. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross

Hello Summer!

Purchased at a Minneapolis garage sale for 25 cents, “Red Cross Stories for Children” by Georgene Faulkner. (Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross)

Summer is the season of many things: sprinklers and flip-flops, Popsicles and fireworks. And garage sales. Stumbling across one this past weekend in Minneapolis yielded a book called Red Cross Stories for Children that the American National Red Cross (as it was once known) published in 1917. Children’s book author Georgene Faulkner composed these stories about “self-sacrifice and devoted skill” as a means to teach children about Red Cross ideals. The tattered spine and fragile pages have rendered the book obsolete for library use, but the words hold up for summer story-telling on the porch or inside the backyard tent with a flashlight and smores.

Happy Summer Everyone!