At the beginning of 2008, the biggest blizzard in a century swept over half of China in half a month. China’s two main arteries Beijing- Zhuhai Expressway and Beijing-Guangzhou Railway were paralyzed at once. Over 200 million mu (1 mu≈0.0667 hectares) of farms were hit. Seedlings and saplings were heavily destroyed.
Early in the morning on Feb. 9, 2008, Wang Linda in Dubai called her company in Beijing by the light of nature and arranged the disaster relief work. After that, she returned to China as soon as she could to carry out disaster relief at once.
On Feb. 21 and Feb. 26, 2008, after returning to China, Wang Linda immediately went to Hunan and Hubei respectively to express sympathy and solicitude for the people of disaster areas, and donated relief materials worth RMB 17.22 million Yuan and RMB 10.14 million Yuan. Added with the VAT of RMB 3.55 million Yuan on the donations paid to the state, the total amount was RMB 31.13 million Yuan, which was the largest donation the afflicted areas received at the time.
The “Charity Sale of Oranges” Took Shape
The blizzard at the beginning of 2008 trapped 400,000t of oranges in Xiangxi. The price dropped sharply to 0.8 Yuan/500g. The orchard owners were very anxious. Wang Linda was determined to help. She thought there were over 1,700 employees in Yihai Group, tens of thousands of residents in several Yihai Communities, as well as kind-hearted students and teachers in Yihai schools, so why not mobilize them, so that everyone related to Yihai could care for and support the affected orange farmers? The “Charity Sale of Oranges” gradually took shape in her mind.
The Whole Process of the “Charity Sale of Oranges”
On Feb. 27, 2008, 23.37t of mandarin oranges reached Yihai Garden Community after a 3-day journey.
On March 1, 2008, “Compassion for Disaster Areas, Sincere Action of Yihai——A Charity Sale of Oranges” formally started. By 5:30 p.m., the first truck of oranges was sold out.
On March 2, 2008, more than 4,000 boxes of oranges were sold.
On March 3, 2008, by the evening when the sale ended, Yihai Garden sold more than 10,000 boxes of oranges in total.
On March 3, 2008, in the relay charity sale of oranges in Shanghai, 20.5t of oranges ordered from disaster-stricken farmers were packed in 4,100 boxes and transported from Jishou of Hunan to Yihai Group’s Lianyi Property Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
On March 6, 2008, the relay charity sale of oranges in Shenzhen was arranged in Andies’ Children Shopping Mall. The first truck of oranges was actively ordered by Taiwan Garden’s house owners and commercial tenants as soon as it arrived. On the 4th day, the charity sale was carried out in the Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University. From 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., 1,005 boxes of oranges were sold for 30,150 Yuan in total.
On March 8, 2008, the charity sale of oranges by Yihai coincided with a tour of inspection in Yihai Community by leaders from Miyun County Government, Beijing. When they learnt the charity sale of oranges, they decided to order 4,800 boxes of oranges from Xiangxi right away.
On March 14, 2008, the donations were sent to Xiangxi, and a ceremony was held in Changsha. This charity sale of oranges had tens of thousands of participants and raised 960,000 Yuan, including the more than 360,000 Yuan of payments for the oranges and freight paid by Wang Linda personally.
Touching Moments during the “Charity Sale of Oranges”
During the charity sale, Yihai Primary School’s students voluntarily carried a batch to oranges to Yuquanying Building Materials Market. They erected a banner saying “Compassion for Disaster Areas, Sincere Action of Yihai——A Charity Sale of Oranges” at the gate of the Building Materials Market and shouted hand in hand: “when disaster strikes, help comes from all sides; show your compassion for the disaster areas, take part in the charity sale!”
A cook in the staff canteen spent all his wage of the month buying oranges. He planned to give all the more than 100 boxes of oranges to his friends and relatives. He said: “how meaningful it is! This is what calls a small gift with deep goodwill.”
A house owner of Yihai community working in a public institution bought 500 boxes of oranges at one time, planning to give them to the staff in his unit as material benefits, so as to do something for the orchard owners.
A house owner of Yihai community came from Zhejiang to do business in Beijing bought 2,500kg of oranges. But someone said he usually was very stingy, and even wouldn’t buy a parking space in the community.
“How many boxes of oranges have you bought?” became a greeting between the community’s residents. Many elderly residents came to the site with money in hands, and left with boxes of oranges right away after paying the money, without checking the content.
Influences of the “Charity Sale of Oranges”
The charity sale of oranges in Beijing got extensive support and participation from the society. It spread Beijing citizens’ compassion to the disaster-stricken people thousands miles away through Yihai Group’s philanthropy. This charity sale of oranges initiated by Beijing Yihai Garden soon spread to other large cities. The governments, enterprises and citizens of Shanghai, Shenzhen and Zhejiang took part in the sale one after one. Their compassion was passed on like a relay baton, forming a trend to philanthropy with the whole society’s participation.
