Saving Lives: Community Health, Service, and the Power of Partnership | Confluence Conversations

This episode of Confluence Conversations highlights the partnership between Confluence Academies and the American Red Cross and how this collaboration supports student wellness, community health, and life-saving service. This conversation explores the critical importance of blood donation—especially within the African American community—and the life-saving impact it has for individuals living with sickle cell disease. With one in three Black blood donors matching patients with sickle cell, increasing awareness and participation is essential.  Guests also reflect on the ongoing tornado relief efforts across St. Louis and the powerful work being led by students, schools, and community organizations. They highlight how these partnerships are providing essential support, rebuilding connections, and showing what it means to show up for one another in moments of need.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Hi, and welcome to Confluence Conversations, where we explore the partnerships, programs, and experiences that elevate student success across Confluence Academies. I'm your host, Hailey Bruick, and today we're spotlighting up the collaboration between Confluence Academies and the American Red Cross. We'll be taking a closer look at how this partnership brings health education, service opportunities, and real-world impact directly to schools while also connecting students in meaningful ways as they can support their communities. Joining us today is Lacretia Cox, Executive Director of the Greater St. Louis chapter of the American Red Cross. We're also joined by Debbie Wade Wilson, nurse at Confluence Preparatory Academy, who helps coordinate Red Cross efforts within the school community. And also joining us is Brandon Price, a junior at CPA. Let's start with Lacretia Cox. And I would like to have you share with us how the American Red Cross partners with schools like Confluence Academies and why education is such an important part of your mission.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Yeah, so our mission is to prevent and to alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies. And one of the things that we do is that we have youth education programs and we wanted to partner with Confluence Academies specifically because we know that many of the students may have been impacted by the May 16th tornado. And so since this is spring season, we wanted to get ahead to make sure that kids really had the opportunity to learn how to prepare in the face of an emergency, such as a tornado. We have a program that's called Prepare with Pedro, and this is a youth education program for ages pre-K to third grade that really helps children understand how to be calm in the face of an emergency, what they can do to prepare exactly, and provide some skills that they have. All of the kids receive a safety plan and they understand what it takes to really get themselves mentally prepared, and also we have information that's in home to parents as well. And so it's a really cool program, and we do it in for several different disasters, like home fire campaigns, all sorts of different things to help children be adequately just safe and secure to know that when an emergency occurs that they they can respond to it appropriately. We also um blood is a really serious part of our mission. We um save lives that way, and um we um reached out to them to do a blood drive. We do blood drives all across high schools in the area, and so we were really excited that they agreed to do a blood drive with us.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Well, that's that's awesome and a lot. Um let me go back to the tornado because I remember that day, and we had a lot of our students. It was graduation day, or the next day was graduation?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Uh it was definitely around the day, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

Yeah. And I know a lot of our students were affected by it. Nurse Wade Wilson, can you um what was your experience that day?

SPEAKER_03 3:09

So uh on that day, I didn't happen to be here, but I heard about it. I know a lot of our families were affected by it. I know that our graduation was that evening on our Valley Victorian's house uh was destroyed uh in that. And uh he was delayed on getting here, he and his family, but they did make it. Uh, this um preparedness this year, I think, was great that you went to the middle school, the elementary and middle schools, because a lot of those kids now, when they have storms, uh I have been told by our nurses that they get nervous, uh wondering if that's gonna happen again. So for them to have a safety plan and know exactly kind of what to do and not get really anxious is wonderful to have Pedro have come to that building to do that. So it impacted our our schools a lot. Uh we helped a lot of families in that. Um, our director of student support set up food banks for them to come and get uh food items and personal hygiene items and things like that for that day.

SPEAKER_04 4:11

Brandon, let's turn to you. Um, what was your experience and how would I know if you had any preparedness before that, or how would how'd you handle that situation and your friends too?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

So uh I was actually doing a mediation, I think, around this time with me and my friends just doing my training, and we were all fairly nervous about the tornado because I think it said it was kind of close to the school. So I'm like, oh man, but personally I have friends who got affected by it, like, you know, they schools, some people's houses got torn down. I have family and family friends who got their houses torn down. And I see a lot of historic landmarks and just places everywhere close to my place at that that got knocked down. So we was trying to help as much as we could. Me and another family friend of mine. We was going around uh seeing if people need full resources like water, uh, what we can do to do to help them with FEMA and all these sorts of things. And I have a lunch lady downstairs, her name is Lynette Lynn. Uh she be talking to me about it all the time, her process. Um, her house unfortunately got knocked down, her and her mother's. And they have a program where you know the person, he put them in a hotel until he got replacement for you know the damages and whatnot. So he helped move their clothes, get them food. He just, you know, benefited them. And you know. Okay, okay. I lost my chain of thought.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

Well, let's chime in there, like with the Red Cross. How can they help in these situations, especially preparing students for his involvement?

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Yeah, so we actually have a Red Cross Club that we do um across high schools in the area, and um, one of the things that we do is we have volunteer opportunities. Honestly, 90% of our workforce at the Red Cross are volunteers, and our youth volunteers are our largest population in helping us achieve our mission. And so there are wonderful ways with the Red Cross Club that you can be involved. Um, we have something that's called a disaster action team. If people don't know, the number one disaster that we respond to every day are home fires, but um, we give them, you know, training, lots of training to go out to be able to assist their neighbors. That's our model. We want neighbors to help neighbors and communities because that's the only way that we can keep up with the ever going disasters that are coming our way. And so um, in the event of a tornado, the same thing. You can go out into community. We did food, feeding, um, we provided shelter for all of um the families that were impacted, and we provided um resources and individual and financial assistance for families that were impacted.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Yeah, that's huge. Um switching gears a little bit, you also have blood drives. Yes. So how does that, you know, feed into the school system and your partnership?

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Right. So, you know, all the only three percent of the population that are eligible to donate blood actually give. And so that's a small amount of number. And we know that you know, we need blood for trauma injuries, car accidents, cancer, um, for all sorts of diseases, and specifically for sickle cell. That's the number one um opportunity that we can use for high schools because um people with sickle cell, they they they have to receive a number of um transfusions, and it's really important to have a genetic match. So we are trying to increase the number of African American donors and Hispanic American donors because they are more likely to develop sickle cell. And so um it is really critical that we get the word out to share and educate the importance of why blood is needed. I don't think people know that, you know, that they can reject certain types of blood. And so it's really important that we have more close-up and match to them. And so we're we're educating, we're increasing our blood drives in more diverse communities, and I think we just have to talk about the stigma a little bit more because people are afraid of needles. They're afraid of it. And so um we we need people, a school body and collective young people to start giving at an early age so that when they get older that they'll give automatically.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

And honestly, it wasn't that bad doing it. I was doing it to help, you know, my community just in whatever way I can, whether it's got to do with sickness or injury, whatever, whatever the case may be, I just did it just to help out. So going into it, it didn't, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Like obviously, I'm one of those people who don't particularly like needles, but it didn't, it didn't really hurt too bad. The service, you know, it was pretty good. Everybody was nice, polite, walking me through everything, making sure I'm comfortable and whatnot. And the process itself, it didn't really, you know, affect me. They took, you know, a nice little amount of blood, but it was worth it though, definitely. I think people, especially a student, if you're looking to help your community in any s way, shape, or form, you should do the blood drive.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

I mean, see, and that's huge having a student who can say, look, it's not as bad as you think. Because I know Nurse Wade Wilson, you have a struggle kind of getting we do, don't we have blood drives, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:30

We have a couple a year. Yes. Um, previously we've had for the past 10 years, we've had at least one blood drive. Um, mainly in the fall. This was a spring one. A lot of spring ones we have to um cancel, but we did not do that one this year. Uh, we got more kids motivated. Brandon was one of the first ones to come and sign up uh when the Blood Cross representative came to come. And he had he knew the importance of it, just asking questions about it and getting through his phobia of needles, but he did good. Um a lot of kids have to get through that phobia, and you have to tell them, yeah, it's an initial needle, but then there's a catheter that goes in afterwards, and that's how they collect your blood. Um, and it's particularly important to us because we have sickle cell students here. So they have a sickle cell fighter program. Uh, we have adults here who don't who donate on a regular basis, uh, and they're with the sickle cell fighter program. And um to give those that blood to the kids who need those transfusions, they get them once a month. Uh, I've been here for 15 years, and for all those 15 years, I've had at least one sickle cell, up to three in my building, and they get transfusions. They have a lot going on with them, and um, a lot of the kids don't understand exactly what sickle cell is, but these kids do, and they are really grateful to know that there's someone out there, someone their age, who understands what they're going through, who's willing to give that blood that they're able to get on a monthly basis.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

Yep, exactly. Right? And I'm just thinking programs like this, so our listeners will have some information at the back end where they can find information to reach out, contribute, and all that, but maybe like a promo, you know, part of your curriculum. I you know you have curriculum for this, but it's geared towards the younger, and then the older students can volunteer.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Right. We we even have a program for blood as well. The one we have for preparedness, we have youth education programs for blood and that we can come into the schools to help them get understanding about what it is to get blood so they're not so afraid when they get older. And so it it is really good to understand. And also, like I said, in in terms of volunteering, there's so many opportunities for you to engage. We at a blood drive, we have what we called ambassadors, and so they can serve as an ambassador at a blood drive just to get people registered and coming in and giving them information that they need ahead of time. We can get the word out about how important it is to hydrate and how important it is to ensure that you know you're eating the appropriate amount of food before you give and donate blood because they will test you prior to the blood drive. And if you're unable to give, then you have to pass for that day. But that that education is crucial and it's huge. And so our Red Cross Um Club ambassadors can do a great job at ensuring that all of the programs that we have to have offer, whether it's disaster or even, you know, we have an international humanitarian law program that we do for education around that. And so um yes, it's critical.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

And it's also great for them, if I can uh add that if you get so many pints of blood, the school is given money for a scholarship for those students. So those students, if you get at least 30, and that's not a lot of pints of blood when you have a school with that has 400 or more people, um, the age of 16 with parental consent, 17 without, um, and if you get 30 pints, then they can get a scholarship,$500. You choose to give your senior, the school chooses to give that senior that uh scholarship money. That helps, any little bit helps when you're going to school. And our seniors, we had a couple who are going to get cords for their cap and gowns, which is exciting to them. You know, you have a cord to add on there that you're a volunteer for the Red Cross. Brandon will get one, of course, when he's a senior, uh, because I'm sure he's going to participate next year. Volunteer, you already and recruit others too. Yes, and recruit others for it.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Do you think people tend to not sign up just because they don't know, like particularly what they're donating their blood to, or do you think it's more towards the needle phobia?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Great question. I think a lot of it is a needle phobia. Also, they don't know that they need to give, and they don't know, like, for example, we have to do seven to eleven blood drives per day just to keep up with the hospital demands. Most people don't know that. And they don't know that the Red Cross provides over 40% of the nation's blood supply. So it's really important to give. And so the more that we're educating people on the need, I think that would increase our numbers.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Okay. I was just about to ask. So what's a good way do you think you can get more students to get drawn in and to donate in blood? Like when y'all do these type of jobs and come to other schools and whatnot, especially for like the younger kids, because I know you know the older you get, I mean you may still have that phobia, but it's not as bad compared to if you're someone like in the middle of elementary school.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah, I think just going through those things, especially in high school, if we do the youth education program where we talk about blood at an elementary school, and so they anticipate that when they get older that they can actually give blood, that's key. And so when they turn 16 and they're able to donate, having um a Red Cross youth club, I think is helpful because you're volunteering running all the programs in word of mouth from students, from their own peers about the importance of giving Bora blood really matters. And um, once we continually start coming back to do the blood drives, people will see that it's not like your testimony that it's not so bad, that you might have been apprehensive before, but that you did it and you're happy to do so. Yes, right. And you're excited about it.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Like you're looking, can't wait till I'm 16 and I can donate, you know. It's one of those.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

You know, just to add this, you know, they provide, like I said, they got good service, but they do give you uh snacks, water and afterwards and everything and talk to you about that.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

And it helps being an athlete too. He, you know, he was healthy before, you know, hand and everything. He did great with his. I didn't have any issues.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Well, I think that's a good point, too, is that this could help motivate students for a career in the health industries. No, I mean Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Um our philipotomists are there and day in, day out in the healthcare field. Um, we have an entire biomed team, and we have a actually a lab. Um, in our lab, um, really we have on one side of the lab is where they're doing all the testing, and just to be able to see the testing, we do give tours of our lab so they can understand it. And then we have the other part of the lab where they're actually processing the blood, um removing the plasma, and you're seeing that process, and then there's a whole research division that focuses on sickle cell, and they talk about what they do with the sickle cell and the research regarding that. So um I there I think there's a lot of ways just to engage and to educate.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Huge educational piece that I don't think most people think of when you hear Red Cross. Yes. No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

The behind the scenes type thing, you know, like you said, the biomed, the lab technicians, the phlebotomists, the nurse who's nurses who are out, the lab techs who are actually running the blood. So those are a lot of healthcare careers, and just not nursing, you know. Right, yeah, exactly. Which is great.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

So education, communication, um, what excites you about the future?

SPEAKER_02 16:58

I think for me, um, we the community mobilization piece for us, um, we're shifting how we operate and do our programming, not what we do, but the how. And we know that we need people from community to really help drive um not only the education, but um our service in helping one another. And um I I think that the more we integrate within um different aspects of community, and we have 19 counties in Missouri and Illinois, so we have a big area, but the more um we people get people engaged within our mission and wanting to help, I think that's what excites me the most because I can see um when just even with a home on fire response, um when people feel empowered to help their neighbor, um they feel like they're contributing more, not only to a greater mission, but to their community. And that's what excites me the most.

SPEAKER_04 17:53

Absolutely. And we have a community in school.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

What excites you about this conversation? It excites me that uh the scholarship portion of it for the students, um, helping our students who have sickle cell, who have the medical conditions, uh, getting our students more engaged and understanding why they should give. Uh, and not the, you know, oh, it's gonna hurt, it's a needle. But okay, when I give this, I'm I'm becoming a leader in my community, you know, like Brandon is one of our leaders. Hopefully, we'll get him involved in the club. Leaders save lives. They have that program within the Red Cross. Um, and like he wants to bring, he did it this year, and he brought on some of your people to come on. He brought some of his uh fellow athletes on to also do it. You know, he I did it, and they were coming to ask me to call their parents, and they were 16. Um, yeah, and it was like I was trying to call parents, and sometimes we have to convince the parents, you know, because they have a stigma too about the giving of the blood. So when the kids get involved at that young age, elementary school, then when, like you said, they get into high school and they're like, I want to do this, mom, I want to do this. Because I did have parents to say, eh, you know, they're gonna give blood, they may be sick, well no, and I had to talk to them. And then the students said, I really want to do this. And they did it. They said, Okay, it's okay, I'm gonna go ahead and sign the form. So I'm excited about that, just and getting more blood, helping out the community more, more so. And even our Hispanic population, we did have a couple who um signed up for to give blood through that population. And um, I like that they have the diversity of having the Spanish speaking or it's the Spanish uh consent forms and information in Spanish as well. Um, so that that really helped out to see them give it, and more of them wanted to, but I couldn't get a lot of um the parents to agree. Yeah, but maybe next year.

SPEAKER_04 19:57

Right, or when they're older.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

And definitely yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Did you want to comment? Go ahead. I think one cool thing too is a useful tool that we have. We have apps, several apps, but we do have the blood donor app. And so you can see exactly where your blood is going. And so I think just having that tool and I think bringing it home to the parents to help educate them to let them know, like, look, I gave blood, this is where my blood went. Okay, and so it's just that continued conversation, and then it lets you know when you're eligible to donate again. And so even though you donated here at your school, you may do it once a year. You can see all the other ways and opportunities for you to donate.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

You're right about that, because we have a staff member who gives on a regular basis, and she's been giving since she was a teenager because she had a friend who had sickle cell in school, and um he he was getting transfusion, so she continued to give. And she told me last week, she said, Hey, my blood went to someone here at Bournemouth High School. Yes, I I that was a component when you said that. She said, It normally goes someplace else, but it makes me feel good that I gave here for a change in my community.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

I mean, what I'm hearing, I'm hearing communication, education, community, culture, leadership, right? I mean, and Brandon, I mean, maybe you want to take on this role.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

No, it definitely wouldn't be bad, especially just to add on to what I'm trying to do for my future. Um, it definitely helps impact myself as to how to be a better leader and how I can better help my community as it is. So being able to know that my blood is going somewhere, you know, beneficial and that's gonna help somebody, it kind of does. It empowers me. It makes me want to come back and do it. It makes me feel good about myself.

SPEAKER_04 21:44

Absolutely, and like a civic duty. Well, does anyone have anything to add to conclude or anything we missed talking about?

SPEAKER_01 21:51

I am curious, like what's the process elimination factor? Like when you do donate blood, like how do you how am I trying to explain? Not eligible. How are you like what makes you eligible to go to a certain person or not eligible to go to a certain person?

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Well, there are a couple of things for the testing and um or aspect, you need to if you have high blood pressure that day, you're not eligible to get blood. If you're taking certain medications like um blood thinners, um you're not eligible to donate. And certain other heart medications, because you want to make sure that a your blood they'll test on the other side, but you want to make sure that you're healthy yourself so that when you're giving blood, it doesn't harm you as a person. Um once we get to the testing lab, if you have certain diseases, then your blood is ineligible to give. And so they're they have to ensure that the blood that they're giving to the individual does not harm them. And so those are some factors that will um not qualify a person's blood for being given to someone. And so they will contact you though, too, if your blood is not for whatever reason, if they detect something in our lab, you receive a notification.

SPEAKER_04 23:03

But also at our high school level, weight, age, right? Those surface.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

And sometimes piercings, you know, tattoos that you had, where you had them within the amount of time that you've had them. So uh we may get a lot of kids to sign up, but it's important to know that that comes with education. Right. You know, if you've had a tattoo within the last couple weeks and where that was given at, that maybe you won't be able to donate blood this time. But don't give up. Just know that okay, you have this certain period of time, and if you can kind of wait in order to do that, that would be good.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

And also, students, you know, still sign up. If you're listening to the podcast, still sign up, you know. Let them say, hey, maybe next time, right? Yes, absolutely. I tell people that all the time. Yep. All right. Uh, anything else to add? That is huge education, and for our listeners, um, we will provide a lot of this information as show notes, which actually let's start there. Is there a way to reach out to you for if another school wants to start a program or students want to volunteer?

SPEAKER_02 24:06

We always encourage people to go to our website and it's www.redcross.org or um 1-800 Red Cross. Um that's easy. It's a number to remember. So just down 1-800 Red Cross. You can get directed to where you need to go and um get plugged into um saving lives. Great.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Anything to add?

SPEAKER_04 24:27

No?

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Well, I like that they have at the Rare Cross Online too the programs at a glance, high school programs at a glance. Um, they're the high high school scholarship program, the sickle cell fighter high school program, the community club program that you talked about, and leaders save lives program. So these are all the programs for high schoolers. Um, if they, anyone listening, want to contact me here at Confluence Preparatory Academy, um Debbie Wade Wilson, I'm the school nurse here. Please feel to re reach out to me and I can give you information on how to better do it and to download those apps uh that you were talking about, like Richard was talking about, so we can get them started on that.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Oh, actually, we got one more question. Okay, because I know students like me are curious about this. Yeah, so um when we do donate blood, I did want to know blood, my blood type. Can we like can y'all like somewhere hit me back as to they will?

SPEAKER_02 25:25

They'll send you a card in the mail and they'll let you know what your blood type is. All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:30

And I was wondering if they still did the card because that's back when I was in high school. But now with the app, I figured it might just be in the app. Like when you register.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

So I got my card and in the mail um after giving. And so um I think that's useful because you can carry it around, and so people will see what your blood type is in case something may happen. Well, it's very important for you to know your blood type. It is very definitely.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Is there like a estimated time as to how long it might take? Like maybe like two to three weeks, something like that.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

It's probably three to four weeks, two to three weeks within that time frame because they're they're processing the blood, and so it takes a little bit of time, but you'll get it in the mail.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Gotcha. Okay.

unknown 26:05

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Well, to all our guests, thank you everyone for being here. This was huge, educational, and um, I loved having you. Great conversation. We need to continue it and continue the education in the schools and the partnerships that we have.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Thank you so much. I'm thanks for having us here. And I enjoyed working with you to get our blood drive in um together and also just to make sure kids are educated about preparedness for emergencies.

SPEAKER_04 26:29

Absolutely. And to all our listeners, thank you for listening and joining us for another episode of Confluence Conversations. Be sure to follow, share, and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast so you never miss a conversation about the partnerships and programs shaping student success across Confluence Academies. Have a great day.