The history of the Red Cross in La Jolla began with an era of great need and production of operating room linens, dressings and bandages during World War I, followed by an active Motor Corps and civil defense program during the years of World War II. The La Jolla branch continued its work through the Korean War and, after moving around in various locations through most of its lifetime, was able to set itself up in its own facility at 7602 La Jolla Blvd. by 1960. In July 1973, the local branch was discontinued and services absorbed by greater San Diego. Activities of the La Jolla branch during World War II are chronicled as part of “Homefront La Jolla, An American Community During World War II,” the current exhibit at the La Jolla Historical Society’s Wisteria Cottage. Although the La Jolla Red Cross played an important role during World War II (which included parading its Motor Corps of shiny Buicks and Plymouths in front of La Jolla High School in 1942), the years following its inception in 1917 proved the most challenging and productive in terms of community involvement. When the first group of volunteers formed to aid the military in the Great War, it included most of the leading pioneer figures in the community like Ellen Mills, Walter Lieber and Jacob C. Harper all coming together under the leadership of Ellen Browning Scripps, who donated extensively to the effort. The founding group numbered 150 dedicated men and women — a sizeable part of La Jolla’s entire population in those years. The first meeting place was the new Community House, now the La Jolla Recreation Center. As the need for places to assemble and make bandages and operating room linens grew, the group soon moved into other locations around La Jolla, including the La Jolla Woman’s Club and Brotherhood Hall (located on the second floor of a grocery store on Girard Avenue — not the site of Burns’ Drugs). Photos from those early World War I years show sizeable groups of men and women dressed in white gowns and aprons tediously stitching cloth together on behalf of “our boys in khaki now in France actively engaged in the great struggle to make the world a decent place in which to live,” as written in a 1918 letter by chairman Louise Seeley. The output was amazing in the first 17 months. The La Jolla Red Cross branch produced and collected 7,236 hospital supplies, 2,102 knitted garments, 3,424 surgical supplies and 37,550 surgical dressings — all raw materials purchased and paid for by the branch. The materials and supplies were shipped to the Red Cross in San Francisco and then deployed to troops in France and Belgium. The Bishop’s School soon set up an auxiliary to the La Jolla branch and instructed students in the making of hospital supplies in its own gauze room. A children’s class in the “preparation of surgical dressings” also was established. In January 1918, a report described that “thirty-five happy, eager little workers came to do their bit for their country. Many of them had parents at Camp Kearney and in far away France.” A motto of the Red Cross continued, “Good things happen when you give … good things happen when you serve.” The La Jolla Historical Society’s exhibit detailing life in World War II-era La Jolla will be on display through May 27 at 780 Prospect St. Viewing hours are noon to 4 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays. For more information, call (858) 459-5335 or visit www.lajolllahistory.org.