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'Tomatoes' sprout on Jinshan sands
By Wing Tan |
August 1, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EXPO volunteers - nicknamed "little cabbages" - won visitors' hearts and now "little tomatoes" have done the same at the world swimming meet at City Beach. Wing Tan explains.
Wearing a red T-shirt, shorts and a dark blue hat, 22-year-old Zhou Yuan from the Zhongbo College is proud of his nickname, the "little tomato," referring to his red shirt.
Zhou is one of 230 "little tomatoes" in Shanghai's Jinshan District who volunteered to help in numerous tasks during the five-day open-water swimming events held off Jinshan City Beach during the 14th FINA World Championships.
More than 3,000 students from the city's 25 universities worked as volunteers for the two-week international swimming meet, which closed yesterday. All wore red T-shirts.
During the Shanghai World Expo last year, thousands of volunteers in green and white uniforms were fondly known as "little cabbages."
The 230 Jinshan "tomatoes" for the open-water events were divided into two teams; 170 worked at 14 beach sites helping spectators, guiding them to venues and seats, answering questions, translating, helping people with disabilities, working in the lost and found area and dealing with complaints. Another 60 volunteers helped event staff at reception desks, security check points, ticket booths, medical stations and TV vans.
"It's so great to be part of such a big event, and it will be the memory of a lifetime," says Jinshan native Zhou. "I'm so happy it was held in my hometown Jinshan."
Every morning he got up at 6:30am, donned his red uniform, grabbed two steamed buns cooked by his aunt and rushed to the bus station in Zhangyan Town. It's a 30-minute ride to the beach and he had moved to his aunt's house during the swimming meet so he would be closer to the venue.
The minute he got to the beach, his busy day began.
"It was like a fierce battle," Zhou recalls. His job was to maintain order at security checkpoints on the beach. He ran back and forth between checkpoints dozens of times a day and helped guide visitors to venues, information stations and toilets.
Recruitment of volunteers for the Jinshan open-water events began in May when 800 residents and workers in the district applied.
The 230 who were selected had typically volunteered at the Shanghai Special Olympics in 2007, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the beach volleyball matches held for eight years in Jinshan.
"I applied to be a volunteer of the Shanghai World Expo last year, but wasn't picked. Now I kind of realized my volunteer dream," says junior Yang Fan from the Shanghai Financial College. She lives in the Shihua area, close to the beach.
Yang assisted the staff of the district's food and drug administration to ensure food safety. Every day she dealt with a long line of dull statistics - amounts of pesticide residue and tableware sterilization numbers.
"I might not have watched much of the games, but I felt needed here," Yang says.
Chen Xiu volunteered at the Royal Jinxu Hotel, where athletes, coaches and judges stayed. He got to the hotel at 6am and work began from breakfast. Volunteers noted the daily match schedule and all kinds of things in a big book, including requests from athletes for purchases and other things.
"A simple thank-you or a big smile was the biggest encouragement," says Chen.
Pi Xiaowen and Chen Xiaofang are both young teachers from Shanghai Food Technology College, who also worked for the Shanghai World Expo last year.
They did what they were good at. Their main job was to help the food safety inspectors carry out quick tests in the hotel's kitchens and note down every figure.
Every 10 minutes they followed the inspectors to the five food storage sites on the beach to check the food and beverages. They also answered the questions from coaches and athletes to reassure them about food safety.
"I did what I could do for the event. The volunteer experience also enlarged my professional knowledge and enriched my teaching materials for my students," says Pi.
The FINA World Championships were held during Shanghai's hottest season.
"Hot weather and heavy workload are the biggest difficulties for our volunteers; their stamina, will power and patience were also tested," says Deng Xiaodong, the director of FINA Shanghai committee of volunteers. "But they passed the test and did a great job."
For hours the volunteers stood outside in the blazing sun. They had plenty of hats, sun umbrellas and sunblock, but some female volunteers suffered heat stroke and passed out. There were cases of sunburn. Some volunteers worked for virtually 10 hours without a break. No one complained.
Volunteers opened a weibo (Chinese version of twitter) account, where they shared fun stories and encouraged each other to hold on.
"It was really hot on the beach, probably over 40 degrees Celsius. But our passion was even higher than the temperature," tweeted volunteer Wang Xia on the weibo. "I told myself to keep smiling and I get smiles back from visitors, which was the biggest comfort for me."
Wearing a red T-shirt, shorts and a dark blue hat, 22-year-old Zhou Yuan from the Zhongbo College is proud of his nickname, the "little tomato," referring to his red shirt.
Zhou is one of 230 "little tomatoes" in Shanghai's Jinshan District who volunteered to help in numerous tasks during the five-day open-water swimming events held off Jinshan City Beach during the 14th FINA World Championships.
More than 3,000 students from the city's 25 universities worked as volunteers for the two-week international swimming meet, which closed yesterday. All wore red T-shirts.
During the Shanghai World Expo last year, thousands of volunteers in green and white uniforms were fondly known as "little cabbages."
The 230 Jinshan "tomatoes" for the open-water events were divided into two teams; 170 worked at 14 beach sites helping spectators, guiding them to venues and seats, answering questions, translating, helping people with disabilities, working in the lost and found area and dealing with complaints. Another 60 volunteers helped event staff at reception desks, security check points, ticket booths, medical stations and TV vans.
"It's so great to be part of such a big event, and it will be the memory of a lifetime," says Jinshan native Zhou. "I'm so happy it was held in my hometown Jinshan."
Every morning he got up at 6:30am, donned his red uniform, grabbed two steamed buns cooked by his aunt and rushed to the bus station in Zhangyan Town. It's a 30-minute ride to the beach and he had moved to his aunt's house during the swimming meet so he would be closer to the venue.
The minute he got to the beach, his busy day began.
"It was like a fierce battle," Zhou recalls. His job was to maintain order at security checkpoints on the beach. He ran back and forth between checkpoints dozens of times a day and helped guide visitors to venues, information stations and toilets.
Recruitment of volunteers for the Jinshan open-water events began in May when 800 residents and workers in the district applied.
The 230 who were selected had typically volunteered at the Shanghai Special Olympics in 2007, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the beach volleyball matches held for eight years in Jinshan.
"I applied to be a volunteer of the Shanghai World Expo last year, but wasn't picked. Now I kind of realized my volunteer dream," says junior Yang Fan from the Shanghai Financial College. She lives in the Shihua area, close to the beach.
Yang assisted the staff of the district's food and drug administration to ensure food safety. Every day she dealt with a long line of dull statistics - amounts of pesticide residue and tableware sterilization numbers.
"I might not have watched much of the games, but I felt needed here," Yang says.
Chen Xiu volunteered at the Royal Jinxu Hotel, where athletes, coaches and judges stayed. He got to the hotel at 6am and work began from breakfast. Volunteers noted the daily match schedule and all kinds of things in a big book, including requests from athletes for purchases and other things.
"A simple thank-you or a big smile was the biggest encouragement," says Chen.
Pi Xiaowen and Chen Xiaofang are both young teachers from Shanghai Food Technology College, who also worked for the Shanghai World Expo last year.
They did what they were good at. Their main job was to help the food safety inspectors carry out quick tests in the hotel's kitchens and note down every figure.
Every 10 minutes they followed the inspectors to the five food storage sites on the beach to check the food and beverages. They also answered the questions from coaches and athletes to reassure them about food safety.
"I did what I could do for the event. The volunteer experience also enlarged my professional knowledge and enriched my teaching materials for my students," says Pi.
The FINA World Championships were held during Shanghai's hottest season.
"Hot weather and heavy workload are the biggest difficulties for our volunteers; their stamina, will power and patience were also tested," says Deng Xiaodong, the director of FINA Shanghai committee of volunteers. "But they passed the test and did a great job."
For hours the volunteers stood outside in the blazing sun. They had plenty of hats, sun umbrellas and sunblock, but some female volunteers suffered heat stroke and passed out. There were cases of sunburn. Some volunteers worked for virtually 10 hours without a break. No one complained.
Volunteers opened a weibo (Chinese version of twitter) account, where they shared fun stories and encouraged each other to hold on.
"It was really hot on the beach, probably over 40 degrees Celsius. But our passion was even higher than the temperature," tweeted volunteer Wang Xia on the weibo. "I told myself to keep smiling and I get smiles back from visitors, which was the biggest comfort for me."
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