Hi, my name is Lindi, and I'm a student at MICDS, a school located in St. Louis. I've been a member of the Red Cross Youth Corps since freshman year, and about a month ago, two friends/fellow youth corps members and I were invited to attend the National Youth Institute in Orlando, Florida. The NYI is a two-day conference where Red Cross youth get a chance to meet, network, and attend lectures and discussions about Red Cross history, leadership skills, and fundraising skills. We learned a lot from this experience, and even though I'm blogging about it two month late, the lessons I learned were so meaningful and memorable that I can still remember the top ten things that I learned from the trip:

	1. Airport water bottles are crazy expensive. $3 bucks a pop!
	2. A lot of Red Cross youth are really outgoing!   They'll just walk right up to you and shake your hand and introduce themselves. NYI is a great place to socialize and network and make new friends. Since its only two days long, I guess there's no time to be shy!
	3. Communication is key to being a good leader. A great way to let others know how you are feeling is the "I feel" model. It goes like this: “I feel ____ when you _____ because _____.” It identifies what you are feeling and allows you to communicate it in a direct, easy to understand manner.
	4. There really aren't enough crosswalks in Orlando (at least around our hotel), so crossing the street to get to Walgreens can be quite a dangerous endeavor…
	5. There are many misconceptions in the Red Cross' mission. Its seven fundamental principles are: Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality.
	6. Exactly what the Red Cross does is offer disaster relief (provide food and shelter during a hurricane), offer service to the armed forces (help the soldiers maintain communication with their families while they are deployed), offer health and safety services (CPR, lifeguarding, first aid, babysitting training), provide international services (improving living conditions of those in severely impoverished areas of the world), and blood services (collecting and donating blood).
	7. When it comes to candy, people will get really competitive! In one leadership exercise, four youth corps kids were willing to jump over and crawl under tables just to get their hand on some chocolate….okay, so I would have been right there with them had I not been wearing a skirt…
	8. Youth volunteers don't just care about candy, though. We had a Q&A session with Gail McGovern, and I was really impressed with the quality and quantity of the questions from all the youth! I realized that I was surrounded by about 300 really smart kids with a real passion for the Red Cross and its cause.
	9. Finding the right cause is the most important part of fundraising; however, there is SO much time and energy that goes into the planning of the event. One has to think about logistics, date, target audience, funding, communication, the pitch, how to sell it, advertisement…the list goes on and on.
	10. But fundraising is all worth it because the cause is what it's all about! At one lunch session, the theme was sharing your story. There's a reason why everyone at NYI volunteers with the Red Cross.   Well I'm a part of the Red Cross Youth Corps because I just love helping others, and the Red Cross is a great organization to do that with. The Red Cross is my favorite organization to volunteer with because no matter what country, no matter what religion, if there is a health, disaster, military, blood, or international situation, the Red Cross is willing to help whoever needs it. This incredibly broad message of helping everyone in need is why I love to volunteer with the Red Cross.