A spontaneous visit to a Red Cross of China site during the summer led to an eye-opening event for senior Lorelle Sun.

A member of the American Red Cross club at Diamond Bar High School, Sun ventured out to China, and while there, paid a visit to the local Red Cross in Guangzhou. Before Sun left for her trip, she had sent three emails and left two voicemails to the Guangzhou headquarters. Although having never received a response, she still sought out to give them a surprise visit on July 20.

When she entered the building, Sun wore her Red Cross shirt, hoping to draw a sense of familiarity with the members there. When she arrived, she saw that there was a CPR/First Aid class taking place. Sun patiently sat in the back observing the class and was fortunate enough to sit next to an adult volunteer named Suki.

Suki was able to answer many of Sun’s questions, one of which was why there was a lack of youth volunteers. Suki explained that students were too busy studying for college entrance exams to participate in extracurricular activities, which resulted in the majority of volunteers being adults. This was a great shock to Sun coming from a branch where there are more youth volunteers than adults.

That afternoon, a service to the elderly project was also taking place, so Suki eagerly invited Sun to participate. That day, the Red Cross volunteers visited the home of an elderly man and spent the afternoon talking to him and his family. Sun even found out that the man served as a soldier during the regime of Chairman Mao Zedong.

Sun first gained interested in Red Cross when she attended its Leadership Development Camp, a camp that trains youth to become better leaders and volunteers. She now serves as the Communications Committee head as well as a staff member for the camp. Sun has been a part of the Red Cross club at DBHS since her freshman year; however, she has been involved with Red Cross since seventh grade. This past year, she has been nominated for the Red Cross Youth Volunteer Excellence Award.

“I am just another youth volunteer trying to help other people for the joy of it, and Red Cross happens to be my platform to do so,” Sun said.

*To read more about Lorelle’s International Red Cross story, check out her blog, firetheshots.blogspot.com