In the past nine years, Li Jin, who was born in Guangxi but raised in Sanya, has made great efforts to protect the waters of Sanya city in Hainan. He is now spreading the knowledge of environmental protection through new media platforms (媒体平台).

In 2014, he began doing volunteer work to clear rubbish from the beaches and officially registered (注册) as a volunteer in May, 2017. Li Jin immediately took the lead in a cleanup activity on the Sanya River.

In April, 2021, he used his own money to set up a volunteer service center which has 1,170 registered members who take part in activities without asking for payment (付款). So far, he has spent about 3, 800 hours on volunteer activities in over 550 events. More than 2,300 people have joined in with his encouragement. They’ve drawn the attention of both the adults and the children to the importance of protecting the oceans and beaches. Since it was set up, his center has organized 51 beach-cleaning activities that have seen about 1, 800 people join in. In 2021, because of Li’s growing influence in environmental protection circles, the city government invited him to make a number of short videos, in which he uses simple words to explain how to protect the environment. Several of the videos have been watched millions of times.

“My volunteer work would be meaningless if I got paid. But the work itself is of great value. So I will continue doing the environmental protection work,” he said.

Last Sunday morning, I had a yard sale with my sister. We set up a long table in the yard and placed many old things on it. We made a poster (海报) to tell people that we wanted to raise some money for a student in our school. The student was ill but her parents didn’t have enough money to take her to hospital.

Maybe because of our kindness, our sale went very well. We were very happy because the fewer old things we left, the more money we could raise for the student. Just then, a boy came to our sale. He looked at many things and finally picked a necklace (项链). “How much is this?” he asked. “Twenty,” I answered.

He took out some coins from his pocket and counted. Then he asked us, “Could I have it for 15 yuan? This is all I have.” We wondered why the boy wanted to buy a necklace. So I said, “Why do you want to buy it?” “Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday. I want to give this nice necklace to her as a gift. At the same time, I can also do something for the student who needs help. I think my mother will be happy about what I do.”

My sister and I were both moved by him. So we decided to let the boy buy it for 15 yuan. After saying thanks to us, he went away with the necklace happily. And we were happy, too.

After the first week，I noticed that the food was eaten up very quickly．Then I began keeping an eye on my mom．To my surprise，I found that she would put some of the food into a paper bag and go out with it at about nine every morning．And finally，I decided to follow her．I saw her taking the food to the street children．She would also spend a lot of time talking and playing with them．

One day，I talked to a neighbor and found out that my mom was well-known in the area. The children were very friendly with her and thought of her as their own mother．Then it hit me—why wouldn’t she want to tell me about it? Was she worried that I would stop buying food if I found out?

When my mom got home , I gave her a big hug (拥抱). I told her she didn't need to keep it a secret from me．And she told me something about children. Some of them lived with an old lady in a small house．Others slept on the street．For years, she was helping the poor street children by giving them food. After she told me everything，I was so moved by how selfless (无私的) she was. She helped others in need. As her son，I was so proud of my mom．

I continued to buy food for my mom after that. But I always added one more bag for her other children.