March 5th is China's Learn from Lei Feng Day and also China Youth Volunteer Day. The spirit of Lei Feng is an accumulation of traditional virtues of the Chinese nation and a spirit that keeps pace with the progress of the times. The two festivals are on the same day. In fact, learning from the spirit of Lei Feng is also practicing the spirit of volunteers who "love and contribute to society, warm the world with true feelings". In previous years, various commemorative activities were held on this day across the country. However, this year, due to the epidemic, it has been a bit quiet, or rather, it is not the current hot topic that everyone is most concerned about.

However, on this day in Tongnan, Chongqing, hundreds of volunteers gathered together and did a very meaningful and positive thing, which was to pool their wisdom and work together to raise dozens of tons of aid materials for Wuhan Fangcang Hospital and Baibuting Society. On this day (actually, it's not just this day, they have been busy with epidemic prevention and control since the outbreak of the epidemic), hundreds of volunteers from multiple volunteer associations in Tongnan District, Chongqing, tightly gathered together in the face of a major disaster, working from early morning until late at night, and finally dragging their tired bodies home after the truck was loaded.

They are divided into multiple groups, some people go to poor households to purchase sweet potatoes and taro, some go to vegetable bases to harvest children's vegetables and radishes, some go to fruit bases to pick kumquats, and some go to donate enterprises to transport lemons, canned goods, and hot pot ingredients... Multiple groups work together, with division of labor and cooperation, with only one goal, which is to collect materials as soon as possible. These materials are donated by enterprises and individuals, as well as those purchased through donations, but they are basically pollution-free vegetables and fruits from Tongnan local area.

They come from different industries, some are white-collar workers who usually work in offices, some are business owners, some are teachers who educate and nurture people, some are wanderers who delay going out, and some are foreigners who come to start businesses in Tongzhou... Now, they have all gathered together because of their great love to assist Wuhan.

Many of them have never engaged in physical labor in their daily work and life, and some girls even belong to the category of those who need help to twist bottle caps. However, they play the role of female men in volunteer activities. Although their strength is not as great as that of boys, they still try their best to contribute to the activities.

There is no boss or serious supervisor here, but no one is lazy. If one person can move, then one person moves, and if one person cannot move, then two people lift. If it's too tiring, just rest nearby for a while before going up. The above picture shows lemons from Tongnan Real Estate (Tongnan is the lemon capital of China and one of the world's three major lemon producing areas). Each box weighs 30-40 pounds. After unloading a truckload of lemons, even the sturdy young man admitted that he was too tired. Not only did he sweat his clothes and back, but his arms were also sore.

Some people are responsible for collecting materials in rural areas, some are responsible for loading and transporting the collected materials back to the warehouse, and some are responsible for packaging the materials collected from various places in the warehouse. It can be seen that the warehouse is mainly staffed by women because the task of packaging requires relatively less strength and is more suitable for women to engage in.

According to Miss Jiang Lumen, one of the organizers of the event, although there are many people and great strength, there are also many difficulties encountered during the process. For example, when going to buy sweet potatoes from poor households in the countryside (the purpose of doing so is to raise aid materials and also provide assistance to poor households), it was very difficult to walk on the muddy road due to rain. Everyone carried the sweet potatoes on their shoulders and slid step by step onto the car, which was very difficult.

There was also a small team going to Chongkan (the hometown of the Taoist supreme ancestor Chen Tuan, and also the location of China's top ten rapeseed flower fields) to pick kumquats at a fruit base. Due to the tight schedule, the picking was already dark, and on the way back, the car broke down, causing it to arrive at the warehouse late at night.

Volunteers come spontaneously and voluntarily to participate in activities without compensation. A team leader named Zhang Ping told Yufan that they have spontaneously organized to participate in some epidemic prevention and control work since the outbreak of the epidemic in late January. Earlier, they monitored the outsiders on the highway at the intersection, and later did propaganda along the street. They also supervised people not to go out freely at the entrance of some communities. After more than a month, they not only did not think about a penny of compensation, but also often had to solve their own lunch. When thirsty, they drank mineral water, and when hungry, they ate their own dry food.

The venue for gathering materials for the event is several large warehouses of a local enterprise in Tongnan, which is also the headquarters of the event. Everyone gathers here in the morning, and after division of labor, each group is responsible for delivering the materials here. The volunteers who stay here first seal the bottom of thousands of cardboard boxes for future use.

After these materials arrive at the warehouse, each item should be placed in a prepared cardboard box according to its corresponding amount. Although it may sound simple, it is not easy to make. Not only is the quantity large, but it is also necessary to ensure that each cardboard box contains the same amount of materials, and not too much, because if one material is placed too much, other materials may not fit in.

Many people may not understand. Since you are providing assistance, wouldn't it be enough to bring every type of material together and give it to the Wuhan counterpart? Why make it so troublesome? In fact, there is a reason for this. According to Chen Baibing, the person in charge of the Tongnan Youth Chamber of Commerce, Tongnan had previously raised some vegetables to send to Wuhan, but due to the relative shortage of local personnel, some vegetables were not distributed to the people in need in a timely manner. Over time, some of them went bad, resulting in significant waste.

He said: It's not easy for us to raise materials, and they are all good things produced in Tongnan. If we really bring them over and they break down, we will also feel sorry for ourselves. What should we do? We can only do more work to reduce the workload of local distribution personnel. They creatively collected more than ten types of materials, divided each type of material into small portions, and then put more than ten different materials into one heart-shaped cardboard box (each cardboard box contains about 20 pounds of materials).

In this way, when our supplies arrive in Wuhan, they will be directly delivered to the pre contacted makeshift hospitals and Baibuting community. A list has also been established for families with elderly, weak, sick, disabled, or pregnant families to be given priority care, and then unloaded in the corresponding communities. Each family can come to collect one box, which can greatly reduce the workload of distribution and improve efficiency.

According to one of the drivers responsible for transportation, this batch of materials will be loaded on the evening of the 5th and depart from Tongnan. They will arrive in Wuhan on the 6th and can be quickly brought into the homes of Wuhan residents. Both vegetables and fruits are fresh and should not be spoiled, even fresher than those sold in supermarkets.

In the afternoon, each group gradually brought back the materials they had raised to the warehouse. Hundreds of volunteers, some for inspection (any damaged ones must be picked out), some for packaging, some for sealing, and some for loading. The above picture shows two large trucks loading, shining brightly in the sunshine, carrying the deep friendship of the people of Tongnan, and about to go to Wuhan.

At this moment, Ji Shuji from Tongnan Federation of Industry and Commerce brought some donor representatives to the scene to check the progress of the loading and cheer for the volunteers. Before leaving, he also held a brief departure ceremony with some volunteer representatives and took a group photo with everyone in front of two large trucks (there were several flags in the photo, each representing a volunteer organization such as Spark, Eight Directions, Transportation, Charity Association, etc.).

In fact, the loading work was not completed during the departure ceremony. 4500 boxes were not a small number. During the process, more than 100 volunteer soldiers were divided into several routes to catch up with the schedule. Some used forklifts to load onto the vehicles, while others lined up and passed boxes one by one onto the vehicles. Even so, they were busy until around 11 pm when they were all loaded. At this time, I believe many people have already fallen asleep.

After the packing was completed, the dozens of volunteers who persisted until the end made an appointment to come to an open space outside the factory. With a rapeseed flower planted here as the background, they built a small temporary stage to celebrate the smooth delivery of aid to Wuhan and their own festival - the 21st Youth Volunteer Day in China. They opened champagne, ate cake, and sang their own songs. Finally, everyone left one after another in the song "We are Young"!

We are all young people, brave young people, performing together in this beautiful era. Youth blooms here, and we gather like a flame, turning into stars in the sky