According to the World Health Organization, there are 26.6 million refugees in the world today. These people are on the move due to issues such as poverty, lack of security and natural disasters. Each year, the American Red Cross holds a refugee drive, and co-leaders of the American Red Cross Club Anna Entin (’24) and Lexi Wolf (’24) decided to host their own drive at Archer to help refugees fleeing unsafe conditions.

Between April 10 and April 17, students could drop off kitchen items, toiletries, household items and cleaning supplies in the collection boxes in the front hallway of the school. Shampoo, pillows and laundry detergent were among the items students donated to the drive. Entin said American Red Cross refugee drives are happening at schools and events throughout Los Angeles, and she is glad the Archer community gets to participate.

“We have such a great community here at Archer,” Entin said. “Seeing people really care about the larger community and knowing that we can all support each other to help others is really cool.”

At an earlier club meeting, club members worked on the boxes for the drive, and Entin got special permission to drive onto campus and set up the boxes Monday morning. Entin also worked with Wolf to create the flyers around the school to promote the drive to the community.

“This was our first time giving back to the [greater] community and, in a way, [it united] everybody,” Wolf said. “We’re just really glad and grateful to be doing this drive and having this opportunity.”

Each Affinity, Alliances and Advocacy club, is allowed one fundraiser or drive per year. Entin said while emails for drives have appeared in her inbox before, hosting one herself made her appreciate the effort behind setting up and holding a drive on campus.

“It gave me an appreciation for those, like the … Artemis Center, that takes the time to set up these drives,” Entin said. “It will also in the future motivate me to probably donate more.”

Planning the drive has given Wolf and Entin ideas for future plans within the club. Entin said the club serves as an opportunity for people to get involved on campus in important causes and hopes to plan more activities to involve other students.

“The plan for next year is to hopefully do a lot of fun activities like card-writing to thank people who have donated blood for Red Cross,” Entin said. “We could do like a fundraiser or bake sale or have people like make things and sell them to donate the money to Red Cross. There [are] so many cool opportunities since it’s such a big organization. ”

Club member Sabrina Walker (’24) participated in creating the collection boxes before spring break and placed flyers around campus when students returned from spring break. Walker said this drive served as a culmination of the club’s mission of helping people.

“I always like to join the clubs that have the most direct impact,” Walker said. “The refugee drive is really great because … although I might not be able to directly see them and what happens on the other end, at least I can know that I play a part in helping people across the world.”