One Sunday morning, I walked my dog Ben near the park. At the end of one street, Ben pulled (拉) me into a garden with lots of flowers. At first, I tried to pull Ben back to the street because I was afraid there might be something dangerous inside the garden. However, every time I tried to get Ben out of the garden, he pulled harder. Then I decided to follow Ben in.

Then I heard some sounds. I followed the sounds to a vegetable patch (菜地). A group of people were busy working there. They told me it was a community (社区) garden and they were all volunteers (志愿者). They come to help every Sunday morning. They make sure everything is growing well in the garden. The following Sunday morning, I went to work in the community garden. I have worked in the garden for about one year. It is not easy work, but I feel very happy seeing everything in the garden grow well.

Claude and Louis are “giraffes”. So are police officers Hankins and Pearson. These men and women don’t look like giraffes; they don’t look like you and me. Then, why do people call them “giraffes”?

A giraffe, they say, is an animal that sticks out, its neck can see places far away and has a large heart. It lives a quiet lie and moves about in an easy and beautiful way. In the same way, a “giraffe” can be a person who likes to “stick out his or her neck” for other people, always watches for future happenings, has a warm heart for people around, and at the same time lives a quiet and beautiful life himself or herself.

“The giraffe Project” is a 10-year old group which finds and honors “giraffes” in the US and in the world. The group wants to teach people to do something to build a better world. The group members believe that a person shouldn’t draw his or her head back; instead, they tell people to “stick their neck out” and help others. Claude, Louis, Hankins and Pearson are only a few of the nearly 1,000 “giraffes” that the group found and honored.

Claude and Louis were workers in the factory when they were young. When they were getting old, they left their work with some money that they saved for future use. One day, however, they saw a homeless man looking for a place to keep warm and they decided that they should “stick their neck out” and give him some help. Today, they lived in Friends’ House, where they invited twelve homeless people to stay every night.

Police officers Hankins and Pearson work in a larger city. They see crimes(犯罪) every day and their work is sometimes dangerous. They work hard for their money. However, the two men put their savings together and even borrowed money to start an educational center to teach young people in a poor part of the city. Hankins and Pearson are certainly “giraffes”.

Some people always ask me why I like helping others. I’ll say I’m learning kindness from my father.

One day when I was twelve, I went with my father to his work place. While I was running around, I saw a poor woman with a child in her arms standing outside, crying a lot. She was thin and looked pale. My father went out and asked her to come in. He gave her some water and then asked what was wrong.

The woman said that her husband died months ago and that she didn’t have anyone else in her family who could help her. She did some manual labor for a living. But she was ill those days and was unable to go to work. So she had nothing to eat. While telling the story, she started crying again. My father and I were deeply moved by her story.

We got some food for her and her baby. My father then took them to the nearest hospital, because neither the mother nor the child seemed to be very well. On the way, my father bought her a small bag of flour. He also gave her some money before we left her. The lady was so grateful.

Eight years has passed. I still remember it clearly. My father’s kindness inspires (鼓舞) me all the time.