Westchester Teen Wins National Red Cross Award

Eli Russ received an exciting missive the day he turned 18, but it wasn't birthday well-wishes.

The 18-year-old Mamaroneck High School senior and long-time Red Cross volunteer learned he had snagged the non-profit's prestigious Navin Narayan Excellence in Youth Leadership Award.

"You can't ask for a better birthday present," Russ said. "It was very special."

The annual award is doled out in March to young volunteers who show "exemplary leadership skills and service to the organization." The accolade is the namesake of Navin Narayan, a Red Crosser who started his volunteer journey at 14 and died of cancer at age 23 in 2000.

Russ was aware he was nominated, but wasn't overlly confident—"I knew I was up against excellent candidates," he said.

"[So] it was such a shock to open that email," he added. Russ

Russ, a Mamaroneck resident, has a volunteer pedigree that dates back three-and-a-half years. At a meeting with a local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in his hometown in 2009, he heard a Red Cross official sound off about the non-profit's work and vision.

"That sparked my interest," Russ said.

Soon after, he joined up with his high school's Red Cross club, and rose through the ranks to president in three-months time. And in 2010, when a devastating earthquake ravaged Haiti, Russ was thrust into the spotlight.

"That was my first real leadership task," he explained. But the club pulled together to organize a slate of charity work, and their dedication went noticed.

"Next year, we ran out of seats at our first meeting," Russ said.

Russ functions at three levels with the Red Cross—at the high school tier, where he is president, at the county tier, where he pitches in with the Metro New York North Disaster Action Team, and at the national level, where he and one-dozen other teens from around the nation comprise the National Youth Council.

His work on the county level frequently puts him at the scene of a disater—last week, he was on the ground in Mount Vernon as a powerful blaze ripped through a series of apartment, displacing eight families.

Russ missed out on two of his high school classes that day, instead standing on a smokey city street with gaggles of firefighters, cops and EMS workers. Russ and his fellow volunteers worked to ensure the now-homeless residents had a place to bunk.

"At end of the day, everyone had safe, warm place to stay," he said.

Actions like this earned Russ the national accolade, which was presented to him at the non-profit's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"Receiving that award was one of biggest thing to happen in my life, and means the world," Russ said.

And along with a crowd of Red Cross leadership folks and volunteers, Russ' parents were guests, too.

"For them to hear all these great things people said about me was very touching, and really brings together my daily work and passion for the Red Cross," Russ said.

Russ, who is attending Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania this fall, will remain on the Red Cross' Youth Council for another year, he said. And in the meantime, he's exploring volunteer EMS opportunities for when he arrives on campus.