A Gift That Never Stops Giving

Giving blood is a small way of giving back to a huge cause: saving lives. This is what Lindsey Wilson College junior, Gabriella Pedroza is helping do as an ambassador of the American Red Cross.

“I knew there was a lot of competition when I went through the page of the website, I saw the people that have done it before and I thought it could be an amazing internship, it was weird because I didn’t know what exactly it would look like, how it would be, but I thought it was a great opportunity,” said Pedroza.

Pedroza worked very hard in her journey to become an ambassador of the Red Cross. Traveling with unknown people to Washington D.C. after she had learned she had been accepted into the American Red Cross’ program to learn and grow. Pedroza wasn’t quite sure what she had signed up for, but was ready for the adventure.

“We stayed at George Washington University, we were 12 in total, 11 other students from NAIA universities,” said Pedroza.

The trip wasn’t all fun and games though, they had to do lots of work, learn how the Red Cross worked, and learn what was going to be expected of them when they were sent home to work on their own blood drives.

“We had to accomplish office hour: 9A.M. to 5 P.M., we had presentations and speeches. Every night they would give us something to read and the next day we had to talk about it,” said Pedroza.

Pedroza not only having the struggle of a language barrier as a foreign exchange student but a full plate to manage with learning the process of being a part of such a big, important organization. To become an ambassador you must be an athlete, so while learning the process, she also has to maintain good grades with the school, do good in her sport: tennis, and manage blood drives every semester to maintain her status with the American Red Cross.

“It was challenging, I had to get all the stats, I had to talk to the athletic director, I had to talk to President Luckey through email and contact him and get the statistics about how much students there are here, how many students are athletes, how many students are commuters, how many aren’t. It was challenging but it was to give us something to start with.”

The school had a blood drive in late August, this was operated and ran by The American Red Cross but the brains behind the operation was Gabriella Pedroza. Pedroza was in charge of setting a goal of how many people she would get blood from and had to check with the Red Cross on when they would arrive to the school and basically take a full day out of her busy schedule to run this drive.

“When I first received the sign in sheet, it was only 11 people and i needed 46. I was like ‘oh my gosh how am I going to get that many people.”

The first blood drive was very tough for Pedroza but she made it through.

“The staff from the Red Cross were suppose to be here around 9 in the morning and the blood drive was suppose to start at 10, so I had like 50 people with appointments already, and when i got there after my class, around 9:30 in the sub, there was no one. The place was empty.”

“People are going to be so mad, they might not sign up again with the American Red Cross, I didn’t see it as like my point of view of what people will look at me and say but the point I wanted people to see and understand is that you are working with an important organization,” said Pedroza.

This was a tough day for Pedroza but at the end of it, she was very pleased with the turnout. The Red Cross showed up shortly after the struggle of the morning and got to work as fast as possible to reach the goal Pedroza had set for that day! Even after the bad start she had a great attitude about the rest of the day and now the blood drives ahead.

“President Luckey actually donated that day for the first time, so it was really great, I didn’t think I would get that many people, I actually was super scared,” said Pedroza.

Pedroza isn’t stopping there, being an international student and getting the opportunity to help people in the country she is staying in currently. Pedroza is a very rare being, she loves to help and nothing will stop her from making changes little by little.

“We are not talking about one person, we are talking about a thousand, million people and that’s just here in America, what about everyone else in the other countries,” said Pedroza.

“Even when I’m doing this by myself I have realized that it has a big impact mainly because of how people are and how they are like always giving out, always trying to help, they are always interested in doing something,” said Pedroza.

Gabriella Pedroza looks forward to doing many more blood drives to not only help the community of Adair county and Lindsey Wilson but to make a small start to a big change.

“My goal for the next blood drive, that is going to be next semester, will be higher of course, so I will get there just like I did this time,” said Pedroza.

Many would scurry when they hear how much work they will actually have to do to make a change, to be someone greater and to even make the world just a little bit better. But, Gabriella Pedroza is not one of those people.

“Right now nothing can scare me, I will face any future challenge that I may have.”