On Sept. 8th, 2020, President Xi Jinping presented medals to the recipient（接受者）of the Medal of the Republic（共和国勋章）Zhong Nanshan, and recipients of the national honourary（荣誉的）title “the People’s Hero” Zhang Boli, Zhang Dingyu and Chen Wei, at a meeting commending（表彰）role models in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 epidemic（流行病）at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Zhong Nanshan is one of them. He led his team to Wuhan to fight against the illness. He made the important decision to cut off Wuhan from other cities to stop the virus. Thanks to him, the disease is under control day by day.

“Wearing this uniform, I should do everything for the country,” said Chen Wei, a key figure behind the vaccine（疫苗）.   She made great achievements in COVID-19 related basic research and development of vaccine and protective medicine.

Zhang Dingyu, head of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, learned that his wife was infected（感染）with the COVID-19, but he still fought in the front line of the epidemic for more than 30 days. And he led the medical team to treat thousands of patients.

Although people have different positions, industries, abilities and levels, they can create great achievements in common positions.   That’s because they have heroic dreams and do heroic deeds. Everyone admires a hero.

In five minutes of meeting Olivia Ports, I knew she was a special teenager. Olivia was born with a compromised immune system（免疫系统受损）. It means she gets ill easily. Olivia is good at music. When she realized she would have to give up dancing, she picked up her mom’s old guitar and taught herself to play. “With so much boring time, I had to have something to do.” she said.

“I don’t want the story to be about her,” said Olivia’s mother. But like all children fighting against diseases, it is brave of her to face it.

It was during a visit to the hospital that she met Classical Blast, a popular band（乐队）that invited Olivia to join them as a guest guitar player at their concert. Their encouragement gave her the courage to begin playing in public in the area, and soon she was often on stage.

It was another treatment that gave her most recent passion（激情）. During the days when she was in hospital last year, Olivia sang songs for children there to make them happy. That’s why this year Olivia decided to perform the show in front of 1,200 people, asking guests to bring toys to young patients.

“When you fill your life with things you love,” she said, “your everyday life will be more meaningful.”

If you have no special plans for your holidays, why not spend your time helping others?

Don’t listen to people who say the young people today often think only of themselves. It’s not true at all. More and more young people in the U.S.A. volunteer(志愿) to spend their school holidays working for others. And they don’t do it for money. Here are some of their stories.

Alice Hamilton,17

I’m going to help the Forest Center build new hiking paths in the mountains. It’s going to be terrific（极好的）— I’ll spend the whole summer living in the tent and breathing the clean mountain air. I’m going to sleep under the stars. It will be a nice sport, and I’ll be able to do something good at the same time.

Jason Moore,18

This summer, I’m going to volunteer with Special House Program. They build good, low-cost(低成本的) houses and sell them to families that are not very rich. They’ll teach me what to do, so I’ll help people and also have a chance to learn how to build houses.

Trish Anderson,16

I’m going to teach kids who have trouble in reading. I’ll work for a program called Reading for Life. Every day, I’m going to help kids choose and read books that they like. I want to be a teacher, and I love children and reading, so this is going to be a great experience for me.