The Red Cross club is a place where getting involved in the community and using medical knowledge meet. Red Cross president Varunika Miryala uses this club to her advantage, helping people throughout the community and impacting other Red Cross clubs across the region.

Q: What are the main purposes of the Red Cross club?

A: We’re really focused on helping the overall Red Cross organization. This is through fundraisers and we have activities where we  create kits for those in need. We had a recent one where we created hygiene supplies for kids who are affected by disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes. We also do cards to support our armed forces. 

Q: What does your position entail and what do you do? 

A: A lot of it is finding activities and making presentations to our members and it’s a lot of outreach, and being in communication with, overall, Red Cross. Just because it’s such a big [national] organization and making sure we’re just asking what their needs are and making activities that help them with their current needs. 

Q: What motivated you to join the club and take up this position? 

A: I actually found out about the club in sophomore year, but what I’ve noticed was that there weren’t a lot of clubs that were focused on helping our community in a medical sense, and that was something I was something I was really interested in. I’ve had a lot of experience with community service, so I wanted to combine that with medicine, and we really found a way to do that with the Red Cross. That’s why I was really interested in the club and saw that at Rock Ridge. 

Q: What are some of your favorite things about being a part of this club as the president? 

A: It’s really fun seeing so many people come, so our membership is very open so anyone can just come in almost any time of the year and do it for that and it’s very low commitment. It’s very fun seeing people do their own take on a card or help us collect items even if they aren’t a member. 

Q: In your three years of being a member of the Red Cross club, what was your favorite experience so far? 

A: The hygiene kits we did, we went to drop them off at the regional Red Cross location and were able to talk with other clubs in the region as well and it was fun to see that there’s other people interested in this kind of stuff in this region as well. So we just talked to them about their club experiences. The overall region itself holds a lot of opportunities for regional clubs to talk, so it was really fun. 

Q: What challenges have you faced as the president? 

A: We’ve noticed that just because we don’t require a huge amount of commitment from our members, there are times we don’t see a lot of membership commitment in activities or involvement. We always find a way to have our members join in with the other people outside the club who join in. Sometimes we have good involvement, and sometimes we don’t. 

Q: What are you most excited about for college and graduating school? 

A: I’m excited to try new opportunities, and I’ve lived in a place like this for quite a while. I’ve had some major moves, but it’s mostly been all of the same thing. So I’m excited to branch out, try something new, live in a different way, because I’m going to be living by myself in a completely different city.  

Q: Will you try to participate in something similar in college? 

A: Yeah, for sure, I would love to do that. I think that’s something I really want to expand in college is participating in blood drives and helping organize that, just because we haven’t had the resources to at Rock Ridge yet. That’s something I’m interested in, either me personally doing it in college or now in Rock Ridge with the next generation that comes in. 

Q: What is some advice you have for future students that join, especially those who want to try out for a leadership position? 

A: I think some of the best experiences coming out of the Red Cross is talking to members of other Red Cross clubs in the region and collaborating with them. It makes a really big impact on the things we do as a club and how we impact the community. So keep in touch with others in the region and help them, and provide opportunities for members to also be in touch with the region. 

Across the region, and even the world, the Red Cross helps people around them to keep surviving. As Varunika leaves Rock Ridge and passes down her torch to another leader, Red Cross will continue to take care of our community in the same way they do now.