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Red Cross Campus Clubs Offer Community Service Opportunities
Janeen Orvosh, Intern Staff Writer
Friday, August 29, 2003 — Looking for opportunities to provide community service, develop your leadership skills and make new friends? Join one of the dozens of Red Cross Campus Clubs active at colleges and universities across the country.
Students participate in a blood drive sponsored by the Rutgers-Newark Red Cross Campus Club.
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A group of students at Rutgers University (Newark Campus) organized a Red Cross Club just this year. “Rutgers-Newark had several culture clubs, but no service clubs, “says club founder and president Igor Alves when asked why he wanted to begin a Red Cross Campus Club. Membership in the club, initially twenty students, has grown significantly during the year.
The club’s first project was a blood drive—a whopping 69 pints were collected. This spring the club offered a First Aid/CPR class available to the entire student body, and participated in the School Chest program to help provide school supplies to needy children overseas.
In the future Red Cross Campus Club members plan to be involved in a shelter simulation. The club will also participate in an Aids Awareness Day co-sponsored with the Haitian Group and Christian Society. “We stress co-sponsoring events,” said Alves, “because it is a good way to get people engaged.”
Now a junior at Rutgers, club president Igor Alves became involved with the Red Cross when he took First Aid, CPR and lifeguard training in high school. In 1999 he completed his Eagle Scout project with the Red Cross, and later became the Metropolitan New Jersey chapter’s youth department chair. Since 2001 Alves has held the leadership volunteer position of regional youth liaison, where he serves as an advocate for the development of American Red Cross youth programs.
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