The health and well-being of students is the TCU American Red Cross Club’s (ARCC) motive as it tries to raise awareness and provide first aid training on campus.

Disaster preparedness and blood drives are two health awareness avenues that Dane Stephens, ARCC TCU president and junior pre-med major, plans to offer students and the surrounding TCU community.

“There is such a broad and wide-range array of talents that the American Red Cross can bring,” Stephens said. “The whole nature of a disaster is that it’s unplanned, so being ready for anything and everything is key.”

As the first president of the TCU charter, Stephens said he plans to bring first aid knowledge of disasters to the students, so that they might make a difference in the safety of themselves and their fellow Horned Frogs.

“We don’t want to teach somebody how to be a hero,” Stephens said. “We want to empower the students to have the ability and the opportunity to make life-saving decisions.”

With 10 members, the TCU ARCC plans to reach out to the pre-medical fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Delta, as their first action of recruitment.

Not limited to just pre-medical students, the organization encourages allstudents to help those in need.

Brett Phillips, director of TCU student organizations, approved TCU’s ARCC recognition request Thursday. Phillips, as well as the graduate assistant to the TCU Student Organizations Vanessa Norris, help newer organizations design how they want their interest group to be structured.

“We just want to make sure they follow appropriate university policies, like having a 2.5 [GPA] and being enrolled in 12 hours to be an officer,” Phillips said. “We just make sure those things are congruent, while sustainability is important to us as well.”

Stephens said the welfare of the student body affects the TCU community. The TCU American Red Cross Club hopes to protect that well-being through disseminating knowledge among the college community and creating an avenue that students can utilize in order to learn how to react to first aid situations.

To learn how to join the ARCC TCU or find more information, visit tcu.orgsync.com/organizations and search keyword “The American Red Cross Club of Texas Christian University (ARCC TCU)”.