Volunteers work to make fair a success

By LI FUSHENG lifusheng@chinadaily.文件倉com.cn They work hard yet easily go unnoticed. But these unsung heroes are willing to give a helping hand even at the cost of their summer vacations.It is tiring, but it is also worth- while to be a volunteer at the 17th China International Fair for Invest- ment and Trade, said Li Lifeng a student at a local college in Xiamen.Li has worked for more than 50 days at the organizing committee'sexhibitor group preparing for the annual event, which began on Sept 8.Li, together with three other vol- unteers called exhibitors and dis- cussed issues ranging from the con- tent of their promotional brochures to the sizes and locations of their advertisements.Working long hours on a daily basis, Li said he appreciates the chance to know more about dif er- ent companies."h ey have dif erent cultures and require different communication skills. Also, I have learned some- thing about telephone etiquette and the repetitive nature of the work has improved my patience. I am a better 'caller' now," said Li.But not all of the 936 volunteers at the fair have the chance to talk the days away.Volunteering as a network engi- neer, Wu Haibo from Xiamen University started work on July 17 and in the first 20 days or so his job involved nothing but setting up computers."I set up desktop computers for all the volunteers and there are more to be done," said Wu, with a pile of orders in his hands.Despite his professional skills, Wu said he did not major in computer or networking."I did this because I was late for my previously assigned job due to an illness. So I study up on this in my free time. Actually, I have learned a lot of useful techniques,"said Wu with a smile on his face.He is now capable of solving many computer or network problems and can help install printers.Lin Rongna, also a Xiamen Uni- versity student, has an even tougher job. Lin'存倉 group of 12 volunteers was assigned the task of examining the information required to prepare the participants' passes and other cards."Information accuracy is very important. It even has a lot to do with security."But many people did not upload their pictures or other information in accordance with our require- ments, so we have to help revise the forms by sending them back and demanding more information,"said Lin.Before the fair started, Lin's group checked about 5,000 attendees'information.Facing such a big workload, it was not unusual that they worked until 9:00 pm even on weekends and the numerous clicks and taps have given them sore wrists."I bought this to relieve the pain,"said Dai Juanjuan, another member of the group, showing a specially designed mouse pad.Compared with checking infor- mation, the work of preparing the passes required more dexterity as the volunteers must slip them into plastic card holders before sending them to the participants by express mail.h eir i ngers hurt a lot at er a day'swork, especially in the first days, said Wang Xin from Xiamen Uni- versity.Hard and tedious as the job was, Wang said she enjoys the days she has spent with other volunteers from dif erent colleges in Xiamen and made friends with them.While Wang has almost i nished her work, the days are getting hectic for her schoolmate Chen Jing.Chen said she is eager and anx- ious as the fair gets underway because her responsibility is to release news on Sina and Tecent weibo — two major micro-blog- ging sites in China — immediately at er she and three other volun- teers receive the latest information from the event's organizing com- mittee and exhibitors."It is our goal to of er informa- tion about the fair in a more time- ef ective way," said Chen.By Sept 8, the event's Sina Weibo had attracted nearly 60,000 follow- ers and Tecent Weibo more than 40,000.迷你倉