I always want to do something to improve the environment since the environment condition, especially the air quality back in my hometown is pretty bad. And that’s why I signed up this cleanup event. I teamed up with one of my friends there and started to pick up litters along the riverside. I would say one can never imagine how  bad the condition of the environment is unless he goes there. We took a huge trash bag and it filled up just in a moment. After the entire morning of cleaning, the riverside became as clean as it used to be. The most important thing I learned from this event is that the environment is really fragile and we should try our best to protect it. After all it’s our responsibility to make where we live better and better.

Before I start talking about the event itself, I want to say that this is one of the best volunteer events I’ve ever had. We met up early in the morning, divided into different groups going to different service site. My roommate and I went to a camp to help them doing gardening. Back at the area where I came from, people start to do gardening or even farming stuff around 10 years old, which is part of the reason why I love this activity. We first cleaned up the garden, took out the weeds and made a new layer of soil. Then we made many boxes, put soil in it and planting seeds of different vegetables which is the most interesting part. I’ve never done that before even though I went to gardening with my parents when I was young. The hardest part was to align the seeds into three lines so that they have some space to grow. After this event, I feel like when there is a huge task such as rebuild the garden, the best way to do it is to split it into many small tasks and working together with other people, which indicates the significance of collaboration.

Honestly, this is my first time volunteering at an sports-related event. I was distributed to bike group to help athletes setup the bike and track the distance. It was a quite fun experience. We tried our best to encourage every group of athletes to do their best and challenge the limit. The feeling of helping people and encouraging people is the best part of this event. There was an incident during the race that one of the athletes that I take in charge of started nose bleeding while riding the bike. I rushed to the bathroom and get paper towels trying to help him. I’m glad to see that he was getting better because of my effort. The major takeaway is that the strength of people working together is unmeasurable. When people try to help out each other, everything would work out no matter how difficult it is.

For the DSWS Service Day, I was distributed to the group that went to Furniture Bank. We got to the place early so we played some team-building game. It was a lot of fun and will definitely strengthen our friendship. Soon we found out that we went to the wrong place and it took us another 20 minutes to go to the correct location. Once we arrived there, we’re separated into two groups and I’m in the one to rearrange mattresses and boards. Even though it was a hard task, we worked together, collaborated with each other and tried to find a way to maximize the efficiency. After many hours of hard-working, we finally made it.

The major takeaways of this service day is that the power of collaboration is huge. We cannot achieve the goal of formatting hundreds of mattresses without teamwork. Whenever there’s an obstacle in front of you and you cannot overcome it, just work together with other people and the problem will eventually solved. Besides, the importance of communication is also reflected in this activity since all we did based on proper communication with each other such as when to deliver the next board or how to maximize the space. Plus, as I mentioned before, our friendship is strengthened and I made new friends with whom I never talked before.

To be honest, we didn’t have many these kinds of service activities back in China so this service at Columbus marathon is a totally fresh impression to me. I will never forget how early we got up at that day and we were standing in the cold wind for nearly 20 minutes before we headed to the water stop. We first set up the water stop, carried around tables and filled up tons of cups with water and Gatorade. I would say it’s a lot fun doing these with bunch of friends. After everything was set, we just hold cups in our hands and wait till the race start. When those runners grabbed the cup from my hand, I could deeply feel the happiness of helping others since that sense of being needed helps me find the pleasure and interest in it.
After all, what makes this event so meaningful is that we helped a lot of people, encouraging them to keep going by saying inspirational words. I learned the meaning of giving a hand to other people which is the biggest takeaway for me. Also, the perseverance of all of us enduring the cold helps me to build a mindset that every obstacle can be overcomed if we have a strong belief and dedication.