WEST FORSYTH -- West Forsyth High has clubs for many interests ranging from languages to robotics, but until recently the school didn’t have a group for one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the country.

“I had attended a movie that my church had come out with and it said that all of the proceeds went to the American Red Cross,” said Drew Ridings, a West junior and the group’s founder. “And I had always had an idea of who the Red Cross was and what they did.

“I was curious where all the proceeds would go, and got online and looked up the American Red Cross to see what they did … I found out that schools throughout the country had a club, and I had never heard of a school having a club before.”

There’s at least one reason for Ridings having never heard about a Red Cross club.

“I looked at what the recommendations are and what you had to do to have a club, and I found out that our club is the only one in Forsyth,” he said.

“That kind of gave me a little more information to get it started and try to get it to all the other district schools.”

The group works directly with the Gainesville-based Northeast Georgia Chapter of the ARC. Ridings said that club members will be available to help the organization in any way they can.

“We are a branch of the Red Cross you could say,” he said. “Anytime there is some sort of disaster or fundraiser or blood drive the Red Cross will do, they’ll contact the club directly, and we’ll work with them with anything we can do.”

In addition, the club will hold its own events, including a CPR certification clinic for students in March.

“We work on our own and also with the Red Cross and we have representatives that contact them on a regular basis to just always know if there’s something we need to do or they want us to do,” Ridings said.