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Dong Hengji: Helpful community "Olympic civilization emissary"

My name is Dong Hengji, and I'm a 75-year-old volunteer in Yong'anlu Community on Tianqiao Street. Since 1993 when I retired, I always thought that my mind shouldn't retire, either. I wanted to devote all the rest of my enthusiasm and energy to society. I have only done little things within my abilities these years, but neighbors speak highly of me and label me a "civilization emissary."

Beijing will host the Olympic Games, which is a golden opportunity. BOCOG hasn't forgotten the common people and I was fortunately confirmed as an Olympic torchbearer, the only community torchbearer. This honorable mission will become the most precious memory of my life.

I have been a Party member for 30 years, so it is my duty to promote the Party's policies and citizens' moral standards. The neighborhood committee helped me establish a newsstand when I retired. Since that time, I have thought of the newsstand as a post to provide volunteer service. When a new policy was made, I cut out the relevant content and publicized it by sticking it on the newsstand. When Spring Festival was approaching, I made and wrote by myself over 40 new year scrolls subjecting citizens' moral standards and presented them to my neighborhood. When the important exposition "Eight Honors and Eight Shames" was published, I made relevant cards and gave them to my neighborhood.

A Party member is supposed to help the poor and those in need. One of my neighbors had a very hard life and wanted to sell some newspapers. I said to him, "Take the newspapers! Save the money if you sell any and leave the rest of the newspapers for me." Although my family is also poor (my daughter has no job and my entire three-member family lives on our retirement income and what little we earn by selling newspapers), I helped five or six laid-off workers ward off some of life's difficulties by selling newspapers over several years. The 500 yuan provided to me as an outstanding Party member was donated to extraordinarily poor households in my community. I have donated money during the SARS epidemic, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the snow disaster in the south. This year, I also donated 1,000 yuan to the quake-hit areas in Sichuan Province.

In order to welcome the Beijing Olympic Games, my newsstand was torn down according to the program. I supported it with no complaint as, after all, hosting the Games should be put in front of everything else. In addition, I helped as much as I could. Advertising leaflets that were posted everywhere couldn't be banned efficiently, so I prepared cleaning tools and publicizing materials, eliminated illegal advertisements and provided city residents knowledge about Olympic civilization and manners. I was supported in this endeavor by Wang Xingwu, a worker from Hubei Province, and her eight-year-old daughter Wang Yanjia. We formed a three-member group to eliminate the advertising leaflets whenever we were available. As a result, our community turned out very clean and the advertising leaflets that were once on the ground, stuck to telephone poles, station boards and so on, disappeared.

I work in my community as a Residential Group Leader, Residential Representative, Branch Committee Member and so on. These official names show that everyone trusts me and I want to serve my community, so I take them as my job.

As the only community Olympic torchbearer, I will accomplish the honorable mission, lighting the enthusiasm of people all over the world with the torch and passing on the dream of the Chinese people.