By Anastassia Roberts, American Red Cross intern

Youth volunteers from the American Red Cross Southern California Region attended GLOW (Growing Leaders of the World) Red, a four-day annual summer camp that takes an interactive approach to building leadership and teamwork skills and fostering character growth. This year, GLOW Red was held at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center where youth volunteers enjoyed learning indoor archery, roasting S’mores, singing karaoke, playing field games and beach sports, participating in a movie night and more. Throughout the course of GLOW Red, youth volunteers were presented with GLOW Group exercises and Learning Lab activities that challenged them to face their fears, practice their public speaking skills, understand the importance of diversity, acknowledge their successes and values, test their Red Cross knowledge and learn how to live healthy lifestyles.

Upon arriving at camp, youth volunteers attended an Opening Ceremony and took a walking tour of the facility they would be staying at for the following few days. After learning indoor archery and having dinner, the youth volunteers had their first GLOW Group exercise, “Back to the Basics.” This exercise began with a presentation by speaker Bella Nguyen that explained the Red Cross fundamental principles, mission statement and the different lines of service. Then, each GLOW Group was assigned a line of service to plan an event for based on what they had just learned during the presentation. After each GLOW Group presented the event they designed for their line of service, the youth volunteers finished off the evening by playing games and roasting S’mores by the campfire.

The second day of camp was filled with numerous exercises and activities for the campers to participate in. After breakfast, the youth volunteers were given a GLOW Group exercise in which each group was asked to design a flag to represent themselves. Then, the GLOW Groups went on to compete in field games. After taking some time to freshen up and eat lunch, the youth volunteers engaged in their first Learning Lab of the weekend, “Toastmasters.” For this activity, each youth volunteer was given a prompt that they would need to respond to for about two minutes. Some table topics were lighthearted and while others were serious and required more detailed and thought-oriented responses. After taking a minute to organize their thoughts, each youth volunteer would respond to their prompt. By the end, the youth volunteers received constructive feedback regarding their pacing, delivery and content. The goal of Toastmasters was to strengthen the youth volunteers' public speaking skills which are important in their lives, careers and potential futures with the Red Cross.

Later, the youth volunteers were challenged to face their fears during another GLOW Group exercise, “Fears.” During this exercise, youth volunteers were asked to privately list their general fears and their leadership fears. Then, they were asked to circle the fears that were in their control and develop plans for overcoming them. By the end of "Fears,” youth volunteers embraced the courage that allows them to face their fears in life and in leadership.

After their exercise of overcoming fears, the youth volunteers participated in another GLOW Group exercise, “Unity Through Diversity,” which challenged them to think about the importance of diversity in a team. To start, the youth volunteers were asked to share one word that comes to mind when they think of diversity. These words were loaded into to a Word Cloud, which allowed the youth volunteers to observe the diversity of their responses and consider all the various ways that individuals can contribute to diversity.

Within the Red Cross, there are many different lines of service and volunteer roles, and each one is monumental in achieving the organization’s mission. Furthermore, each person that contributes to the Red Cross mission has a unique perspective to offer because they each come from different walks of life and have had different experiences. From this, the youth volunteers learned why it is important for a highly functioning team, like the Red Cross organization, to be full of diversity. After the final exercise of the day, the campers ate dinner and indulged in a movie night before heading back to their dorms.

On the last full day of camp, the youth volunteers played beach soccer and volleyball and engaged in meaningful GLOW Group exercises that taught them more about the individuals in their GLOW Groups and themselves. The first exercise, “Unfinished Sentences,” asked the youth volunteers to learn more about themselves by finishing incomplete sentences. This exercise allowed them to explore and reveal beliefs, convictions, aspirations, goals and values of themselves and others. From this, the GLOW groups learned more about their personal identities and were successful in building connections with their group members. Later in the afternoon, the youth volunteers learned hands-only CPR and some healthy habits for a healthy lifestyle. “Affirmations,” the last GLOW Group exercise of the day, was an opportunity for the youth members to reflect on their accomplishments during camp and recognize the accomplishments of others. The campers finished off the night with some karaoke, another movie, and some games.

Before saying goodbye to all their friends and staff, the campers competed one last time through GLOW Group chants and participated in a closing ceremony to wrap up the fun-filled weekend.