Playing a Match "Not About Winning," Taking a Class You "Hope to Never Need"

点击链接阅读中文版本：打一场“不为赢”的比赛，上一堂“期望用不上”的课？

Early summer arrives, the seasons shift, and the days grow longer. Daily life moves steadily forward with the passage of time. Ford's volunteers continue to pay close attention to the environment and communities around them, reaching out to groups in need of support.

If you're feeling worn out from the busyness of daily life, or questioning the meaning of it all, perhaps hearing their stories can offer some inspiration.

A Ping-Pong Match "Not About Winning"

This marks the third year that Dipsy has organized Ford volunteers to visit the "Sunshine Home" in Yangpu District, accompanying the members there as they prepare for the Special Olympics table tennis competition.

This volunteer activity acts like a mirror, allowing those of us in the majority to recognize our own good fortune, while also seeing that there is a special group of people who need care and attention. Perhaps first-time volunteers, when faced with the members' clothing, expressions, and movements, might feel a bit at a loss. "The simplest kindness is treating them as ordinary people—that way, both sides feel at ease."

A Training Session You "Hope to Never Need"

As the ForDR program expanded in major cities in China, giving valueble life-saving trainings to Ford car owners, could professional rescue team instructors be invited to provide employees with water and mountain rescue skills training, helping everyone master self-rescue and mutual-aid capabilities in outdoor settings? "Among our employees, a relatively high proportion are young people, and many already have a passion for outdoor activities."

Seizing this opportunity, Colin hit it off immediately with the Shanghai Blue Sky Rescue Team, and together they moved the classroom straight outdoors.

In the water rescue training, everyone started with the basics of putting on a life jacket, then progressed to experiencing search-and-rescue operations by driving a rescue boat. Some employees who were afraid of water inevitably felt nervous facing open currents, but in Colin's view, simply learning to properly wear a life jacket was already a valuable takeaway.

When it came to the rope-skills segment, everyone felt as though they were experiencing an exhilarating outdoor sport. From rope rappelling to simulating how to find anchor points and use ropes for rescue during a sudden outdoor fall, everyone studied with great focus and seriousness.

This seemingly unremarkable rope actually has many uses: on a small scale, it can serve as a substitute for bandages to secure and wrap wounds; on a larger scale, it can be used to build a simple stretcher for safely transporting the injured.

Beyond that, the instructors also guided everyone hands-on through CPR and wound bandaging practice.

"These are skills you hope you'll never have to use, but you can't afford not to know them." Colin holds a longer-term hope for this event: when these skills eventually give back to society in the future, that is the very meaning volunteer work was meant to have from the start.

This work also brought him a great sense of fulfillment—not only from the number of sign-ups exceeding expectations and the enthusiastic participation on-site, but also from seeing, after the event ended, the beaming expressions on participants' faces as they shared their experiences with other colleagues.

The so-called goal of "creating a better world" is, in fact, hidden within these small actions: it's the sense of reassurance that comes from learning first-aid skills on an afternoon, the confidence passed along while accompanying special friends through sports, and the small acts of kindness within one's own ability—like bending down to pick up litter or caring for stray animals.