By Maureen Zug

The American Red Cross workforce has so many shining examples of generous service and creative talents. It is not often that I get to interview a youth volunteer and his volunteer mother, Zain Ahmad and Sabiha Hussain.

Zain is the recent winner of a Presidential Award presented by the Points of Light Foundation. This award was established under President George H.W. Bush, along with the Points of Light Foundation, to encourage and recognize volunteer service to local communities. Zain was recognized in the under 15 category for contributing 100 hours of service to the Red Cross over 12 months.

Zain is a ninth-grade student and lives with his mother, father and sister in Montgomery County. After moving from Pittsburgh several years ago, Sabiha was eager to explore volunteer opportunities near their new home. She decided to take part in a Sound The Alarm event and took Zain along “as a way of keeping him off screen time.”  They found the other Red Crossers to be so friendly and welcoming that they soon became regular volunteers. Sabiha explains, “The more I took Zain with me when volunteering, the more interested he became in the Red Cross.  It was entirely his idea to get involved.”

Zain started blogging for the Communications team after taking a series of disaster public affairs classes with Alana Mauger, Red Cross SEPA regional communications manager. Participants are required to complete a homework blog assignment to receive credit for the class “Writing for the Red Cross.” Alana liked Zain’s writing style and offered him the opportunity to write assignments for the Red Cross Philly Blog.  Zain likes writing on topics like home fire safety and other general safety topics because he is helping a larger number of people with useful information.  Sabiha credits Alana’s mentorship for her son’ s passion finishing his blog assignments “early before the deadline, even working on a Friday night.”

In addition to blogging, Zain also volunteers with the Home Fire Campaign and Youth Preparedness teams.  Over the next few years, Zain would like to establish a Red Cross Club at his school and offer Red Cross CPR training so that students could gain this life-long, life-giving skill.