Using the support of the American Red Cross, which provides aid internationally, three students have brought opportunities for other students to give back to their communities.

Working with the Brookline chapter of the American Red Cross, the Red Cross Club provides its members with the opportunity to help the community with the assistance of the larger organization. The Red Cross is a non-profit that works internationally to help people during emergencies with volunteers and donors.

Junior Lancia Carson, one of the club’s three leaders, said they chose to work with the Red Cross because it offers an effective way to make real change, works internationally and has a strong reputation.

“{We} wanted to positively impact our community with our extra time during X-block to put some goodness out into the world,” Carson said.

Junior Kelly Park, also a club leader, said they wanted to give students at the high school the chance to help their community.

“Our goals for the club [are] to volunteer with the American Red Cross and provide people with community service and volunteering opportunities,” Park said.

According to Carson, the club created and sent cards for veterans and children through the Ronald McDonald House Charities and organized a clothing drive. Carson said she wants to participate in the Red Cross’s Home Fire Campaign which educates about home fire safety.

“The way it works is they send people out to go install fire detectors in people’s homes. I think that would be a super cool thing to participate in. That’s one of my goals for the year,” Carson said.

Junior and club member Emily Shang said she enjoyed making the cards for the veterans and conducting the clothing drive.

“I like that we do little projects to better the lives of other people,” Shang said.

Carson said the leaders of the Brookline Red Cross chapter helped them with planning club activities and understanding the larger organization.

“It’s been really nice to have people to communicate with to know what to do and to get ideas from,” Carson said.

According to Carson, the Red Cross allows clubs to decide who they want to support through donations, and the organization donates money raised to smaller grassroots organizations.

Carson said she found that the club allows her to refocus her concerns on larger issues and she hopes the club does the same for others.

“It’s just good to kinda take a step back and be like, ‘ok this is where my priorities should be, this is what’s really important,’” Carson said. “So that’s been really cool for me and I hope that we could provide that for people who come to our club.”