My Red Cross Story: Will Chai

Written by: Sandy Habib, Communications Volunteer

Young people have so many choices when it comes to how they can spend their leisure time. There’s nothing more inspiring, though, than hearing stories about youth that spend countless hours giving back to their communities in profound ways.

Will Chai’s Red Cross story spans several U.S. states and numerous projects, groups and missions. Will spent his early childhood in Iowa and Kansas, where he grew up with a strong Red Cross presence, especially during tornado season. By the time he and his family moved to Maryland for Will’s high school years, he had a clear impression of the relief and comfort that the Red Cross is so famous for bringing to those affected by disasters.

In his freshman summer of high school, Will and his friend, Brendan Tan, started a Red Cross club at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland. Will served as Co-President and Founder for his remaining three years at the school. In his role, he recruited many members and facilitated countless activities.

During his tenure, Will was elected onto the National Capital Region’s Volunteer Appreciation Committee, where he helped create policies that improved volunteer engagement in the region. In 2017, he served as a Citizen CPR Leader and Blood Services Ambassador. Will hosted numerous fundraisers, conducted disaster preparedness education sessions, scheduled group speakers, assembled disaster preparedness kits and made house visits as part of the Sound the Alarm program, to name a few.

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“The Red Cross experience is what you make of it.  We have so many activities, so many opportunities for youth to get involved, even if it’s just 1-2 hours a week.”

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Will was recognized for his efforts by being awarded the 2015-2016 Youth Volunteer of the Year for the National Capital Region. He also received the 2015 and 2016 Presidential Volunteer Service Award and was selected to be the host and speaker for the 2016 National Capital Region’s Red Cross Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.

Will’s story continued as he headed off to Brown University, where he is currently in his sophomore year. In between his health, human biology, and pre-med studies, he has continued with his commitment to the Red Cross. Brown didn’t have a Red Cross presence on campus before Will arrived, but he reached out to the Red Cross in the Connecticut/Rhode Island region to change that.

The CT/RI chapter introduced him to people at Brown who were able to help Will submit the application to formalize a presence on campus. He now serves as the official Red Cross Club Chapter contact at Brown University and began recruiting members when COVID-19 hit and campus was evacuated. Although he is currently living with his family in Maryland, he is actively making plans for when Brown University reopens and students return: fundraisers, volunteer recruitment on campus, community engagement throughout the local region, connection with other Red Cross clubs in the area and partnerships with area high schools.

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“If you help your neighbor, they are more likely to pay it forward and help someone else.  Sometimes you need to get the ball rolling to foster that kind of culture. This is what I want to do at Brown and in the local community. I want to build that kind of culture.”

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The other inspirational part of Will’s story is that his experience with the Red Cross has influenced his studies and his future career aspirations. He ultimately wants to focus on health equity, health education, and health policy. His spirit of social activism as a young person has triggered a professional commitment to give back to society. Will was selected to participate in a fellowship and intern on Capitol Hill this summer. This will give him a great direct experience learning about health policy.

While Will adds more to his education and career development workloads, he continues to work with the Red Cross. He is currently the Peer Outreach Working Group Lead on the National Youth Council of the Red Cross. This Council consists of 13 youth members and two adult advisors who represent and support youth volunteers throughout the country. They are advocates for youth and young adults, and they’re a part of the National Youth Engagement Team in Red Cross Volunteer Services, working very closely with other National Headquarters departments to create programs and initiatives that benefit youth volunteers. Though their adult advisors offer guidance, it is the youth who are leading the group and its activities. 

Will and his fellow Council members regularly engage with thousands of Red Cross youth volunteers nationwide. They host social media campaigns, lead initiatives like National Youth Involvement Month in November, encourage and organize volunteer activities for youth, and offer leadership and scholarship opportunities to outstanding volunteers. Currently, the Council is working on educating the public about the misconceptions about the blood donation process. In fact, applications for the Council are opening very soon. You can find out more information about the incredible opportunities for volunteers below.

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“Even now, when we’re all staying at home for COVID-19 social distancing, the Red Cross offers online programs that enable volunteers to help their local communities. There are also many online training courses covering all of the Red Cross lines of service.”  

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To learn more about youth opportunities with the Red Cross, specifically with the National Youth Council, please check out the resources that Will has provided below. Youth is defined as someone aged 13-24. 

• We run an official Red Cross website, redcrossyouth.org with activity guides and other great resources for youth. I especially want to emphasize the volunteering from home guide on our website packed with flexible, virtual Red Cross activities. We'll also be posting information about the blood shortage on our website and official social media pages below. 
• We also run a Facebook group called American Red Cross Youth Network and an Instagram @americanredcrossyouth, where youth can find the latest updates and announcements of our programs and initiatives. We run social media campaigns, scholarships for youth and offer lots of leadership opportunities like our Field Ambassador program. Also, applications for the National Youth Council itself are coming out, and the best way for youth to stay updated is through these platforms! You can also directly check the National Youth Council application page here.

My Red Cross VolunTEEN story: Charles Lewis

By Charles Lewis, VolunTEEN

Over the summer, I was given the amazing opportunity to participate in the Red Cross VolunTEEN Program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The VolunTEEN Program lets teenagers from across the DMV volunteer in different clinics at Walter Reed.

I learned about the VolunTEEN Program through my mother’s friend, whose daughter participated during the summer of 2017. I asked her about her experience at Walter Reed and she said that she loved it and had a great time. Her positive response was one of the major factors that played into my decision to apply. I had considered becoming a doctor before I even heard about the program, and so I thought that participating would help provide clarity in my future as this program would expose me to the work environment of a hospital.

The application process started in February of this year, and it required a 500-word essay and one or two letters of recommendation from a teacher, coach, or mentor. I was notified that I got into the program during the middle of May, and I was ecstatic that I would be able to spend my summer doing something really meaningful and beneficial.

Orientation took place the last week of June, where all the VolunTEEN's received a tour of the Red Cross Office, obtained badges and name tags, learned more about how the Red Cross supports the hospital and received information on what department we were assigned to. We also received an in-depth training on patient privacy from one of the hospitals Privacy Officers.

I was assigned to the Pediatric Sedation Unit (PSU), where I work two days a week. While I’m there, I clean beds, fill patient folders, and assist with organization in the storage area. My favorite thing to do in PSU is watch procedures. When my shift coincides with a procedure, I’m allowed to go into the operating room and watch. Thankfully, none of the procedures have been too gory, which is a plus because I do not tolerate blood well at all, which isn’t ideal for someone who wants to be a doctor. The doctors are always so happy to see kids watching their procedures, and will sometimes stop to show us stuff. Speaking of great staff, the nurses who work in PSU are amazing. They’re so friendly and nice and they’ve been super informative about the general operations of the hospital.

When I’m not working in PSU, I’m usually helping out in the Red Cross Office. I usually re-stock the storeroom, take calls, or deliver items requested by patients throughout the hospital. The best part about working in the office is definitely taking the Kids Cart. The Kids Cart is a cart which gets filled up with games, toys and boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, and is taken around to all the pediatric sections of the hospital, where kids and their parents can take games and toys and enjoy some cookies. Seeing the kids’ faces as they see all the games and toys, and the variety of Girl Scout Cookies roll by, is amazing and super rewarding because it confirms that what I’m doing is really important and beneficial. Something else that is confirmed by the Kids Cart is that Trefoils (in the blue box) are indeed superior to all other forms of Girl Scout Cookies because they disappear off of the cart at a speed that would make you think that teleportation has already been invented.

The final thing that takes place in the VolunTEEN Program are Medical Awareness for Teens (MAT) programs. These programs took place throughout the course of the summer and gave the VolunTEENs an inside look at specific practices in the hospital. We would go to different parts of the hospital and see presentations given to us by doctors in different departments.

The first MAT program was about prosthetics and dentistry at Walter Reed. I learned about the process of creating different types of prosthetics, and even heard stories of people who had received prosthetics. We got to see different prosthetic body parts that were made for wounded warriors, including eyes, noses, ears, hands, and whole halves of faces. The stories of the wounded warriors who got prosthetics was very intriguing and inspiring. After the prosthetics section, two dentists came over and talked to us about dentistry in the military and the path they each took to become military dentists.

The second MAT program was about physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT). We learned about the differences and similarities between the two, and how each therapy type goes about providing support to patients. In my opinion, physical therapy is the “fun therapy” while occupational therapy is the “interesting therapy”. That’s not to say that OT would never be fun or that PT isn’t interesting, but they both have different strong points. While we learned about PT, we took part in some therapeutic relay races where two teams competed to see who could do the form of therapy properly and the quickest. We put rubber bands around our legs and attempted to walk along the sidewalk outside, however for some, more time was spent trying to stand back up then actually walking. We also tried to stand on an unstable rubber circle contraption and throw a ball back and forth, but for some people that was just as unsuccessful as the first race.

The final part of PT was going to see the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) lab, which essentially is a huge virtual reality game that helps patients in their recovery. They have a skiing simulation, a hiking simulation, a hit-sharks-with-a-boat simulation. Overall, it was a super cool experience, which really displays how advances in technology can be used for medicinal purposes. While OT didn’t have any virtual reality contraptions or children falling over, it did have a really interesting way of providing therapy. There was a kitchen in OT, where patients will go and learn how to cook and become familiar with a home environment, which is really important. Additionally, depending on where the patient was injured, different board games would be played with the patient. For example if the patient had trouble pinching his/her finger and thumb together, they would play Jenga where you are forced to make a pinching motion to move the blocks. Overall, both forms of therapy were interesting and cool, and it was great that I got to see how they work.

The final MAT program was working with ultrasounds, forensics, and the morgue. Which took place in the Uniformed Services University (USU). I learned how to use an ultrasound, which I found to be the best part of the tour, and got to practice on my fellow VolunTEENs. After that, we watched a power-point presentation about forensic pathology and learned about different types, forms and manners of death. We were then able to identify which form or manner is present based on marks on the body. The final part of the MAT program was the morgue in the basement. We split into groups and looked at bodies that have been dissected to see what the body really looks like inside. That was by far the most interesting part of the whole VolunTEEN Program because I got to see the complexities and intricacies of the body.

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

The VolunTEEN program has been an amazing and memorable experience for me, and I am dreading the day the program ends. All the people at Walter Reed are so friendly and welcoming that you really feel like you are part of a community of fantastic people who want to give back to their country. The VolunTEEN program has shown me how much volunteering can help the lives of many people and I am definitely going to pursue more volunteer opportunities in the future.

To learn more about our Service to the Armed Forces program, visit: https://www.redcross.org/local/washington-dc/about-us/our-work/service-to-the-armed-forces.html.