KEVIN MEDINA

Kevin Medina has been a volunteer with the American Red Cross in Greater New York since September 1996. He joined the Queens Chapter Youth Group after having visited the Chapter to obtain information on First Aid Services and Blood Donations for a school project. He has increasingly assumed leadership responsibility of the Youth Group’s management, including the recruitment and development of new volunteers and the implementation of service activities. In 1998, Kevin was appointed Vice-Chair of the Youth Program. In this capacity, he coordinated Fire and Burn Safety presentations for pre-school children and organized youth volunteers for disaster relief operations.

Kevin demonstrated his commitment to the Queens Chapter Youth Group when following high school graduation of the Youth Group’s Executive Board and in absence of a Chapter Director and staff, he had to assume full responsibility of the Youth Group’s administration. Determined to succeed in his effort to preserve the Queens Chapter Youth Group, he enlisted the help of adult volunteers Mario Velez and John McGee. He also traveled frequently to the Manhattan Chapter to meet with the Volunteer Resources staff and their youth leadership group and continued holding bimonthly group meetings at the Chapter.

In July 1999, as Kevin assumed the role of Queens Chapter Youth Group Chairman, he reconstructed the roles of the executive board to better meet the needs of the Queens Chapter. He created two new committees to assist the Chapter in its community outreach and fundraising efforts and delegated more responsibility to his new Vice-Chairs. Because of Kevin’s leadership, the Youth Group membership not only increased from 30 to 198 volunteers but has also diversified, including students from pubic, Catholic and private schools and from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Under his leadership, the Youth Group was able to raise almost $5,000 dollars in contributions during the 1999 Holiday Drive.

Kevin has played an important role in major disaster relief operations, mobilizing youth volunteers during the Times Square Scaffolding Collapse where he provided support in areas of mass care, logistics, record keeping and communications. He also worked long hours with volunteers during the floods that affected the Queens neighborhood of Springfield Gardens. During Tropical Storm Floyd, he mobilized a team of volunteers to assist in the distribution of clean-up kits and to provide support to the staffing coordinators.

As a member of the American Red Cross in Greater New York Youth Board, Kevin has participated in numerous state-level conferences and was instrumental in the success of this past summer’s New York State American Red Cross Annual Youth Summit. In June 2000, he was appointed a member of the Queens Chapter Board of Directors and in September of the same year, he was designated a Youth Group Advisor.