With a Little Paint and a Lot of Determination, Cedar Falls Student Raises Awareness for 'Red Hand Day'

With a little bit of paint, one Cedar Falls High School student is raising a lot of awareness.

Senior Jillian Ross, 18, organized a "Red Hand Day" Wednesday to protest the use of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide.

According to the Red Hand Day organization, there are currently more than 250,000 child soldiers around the world. Through the collection of red hand prints, Red Hand Days aim to raise awareness about the issue and campaign to stop the use of children in armed conflict. So far, over 370,000 hand prints have been collected in more than 50 countries.

Now, hundreds more have been collected right here in Cedar Falls, thanks to Ross.

She first encountered the issue of child soldiers in teacher Jeremiah Longnecker's Developing Nations class and was inspired to see if there was any way she could help.

"I did a little bit of research on my own and looked it up, and the Red Hand Day is a big campaign that supports this, and I thought, 'Hey, I can do this. Cedar Falls can do this,'" she said.

In a classroom at the high school, she spread out paper and paint and then invited students and teachers to come in and leave their mark.

By 2 p.m. Wednesday, she had collected over 400 hand prints.

Longnecker praised Ross's efforts.

"I'm really proud of her and of the students and teachers of this school," Longnecker said. "Even if that's the first time they're aware of this issue, they're more likely to pay attention to something like this in the future."

The hand prints will be presented to Cedar Falls Mayor Jon Crews. Ross will also document them for the Red Hand Organization, which reports the number of collected prints to the United Nations.