OLYMPICS/ Volunteers
City volunteers are happy hosts
By Guan Xiaomeng (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-08-15 15:02
"City volunteers also contribute to the Olympic Games. I just want to do something for the Games because I am the host," explained Shen Li, who worked as a city volunteer at Shi Jingshan Amusement Park for three days.
She is one of the 400,000 city volunteers the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BCCOG) needs for non-Games services in areas outside the Games venues.
Shen Li (Right) distributes brochures to a tourist and his daughter. |
Shen, a sophomore at Beijing University of Technology said although her job was not directly for the Games and athletes, she still felt honored to wear an orange polo shirt with the Olympic volunteer logo and on the back in white letters it reads "Ask Me".
"When people see our shirts, some come to us if they need help," she explained, pointing to the volunteer logo on her chest.
She was with two other fellow volunteers and the three of them shared a service booth at the foot of the Ferris wheel at the amusement park. They started work at 9:30 am everyday by unfolding their huge dark blue umbrella and arranging their service booth - a job is not so easy for the three young women, but they manage to do it all by themselves.
(From to right) Liu Jing, Shen Li and Li Ting pose with sign language for "volunteer". |
"We distribute brochures encouraging people to have good manners and a four-page tabloid-sized paper about Olympic volunteers everyday. And we help tourists when they have any problems and answer their questions related to the Beijing Olympics," Shen said.
Even though they wanted to help people, there weren't many tourists in the park on Monday morning. Shen was teaching the other two to make paper roses, with which they decorated their bulletin board that reads "Free Olympic brochures," as well as the weather report and giving tips on preventing heatstroke.
Shen suggested giving a paper rose to those who came to get an Olympic brochure. "It's a sweet idea as some people thought the roses were lovely," the university student said with a smile.
"The busiest time for us was this past weekend. There weren't enough of us to distribute things to people passing by. Some of them were so enthusiastic about the Games that they asked us how to apply to become volunteers or how to get to the venues," said the sophomore.
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