Teen Becomes A Local Hero

When Sydney Raley headed into her weekend shift on Saturday, December 18, she likely expected to do more of the same: Stand at the drive-through window, take orders over the headset, and hand each customer their meal with a smile.

In fact. that’s exactly how it started. Sydney Raley has been working at MC Donald’s for about seven months and so far, it’s been her typical after-school job. The day had been mostly normal -making coffee, making drinks, and going into the lunch rush.

But a few hours into her shift. things took a dramatic turn. After handing a customer some of their food, Sydney let them know that more would be coming as soon as it was ready. But just seconds later, she noticed a terrible look of panic spread across the woman’s face. Then came the coughing. She was coughing like crazy and was speechless. Her daughter was in the passenger seat and looked extremely confused and frightened.

Sydney immediately knew she was choking. The first aid training Sydney received more than four years ago hit her. Most 15-year-olds might panic at the sight of this. But not Sydney. Instead, the teen remained calm and quickly shouted to both her manager and the woman’s daughter to dial 911. Then, she dove through the drive-through window and came to the rescue.

The teen pushed the driver’s side door forcefully open and got the choking woman to her feet. Then she dug down deep into her memory bank to recall everything she learned from her Red Cross babysitter class-which she’d taken four years earlier. All that training of how to use the Heimlich maneuver(哈姆立克急教法)immediately kicked in. Still, she had never actually had to use the life-saving technique before, and after a few tries, it wasn’t quite working. Luckily, another customer was just a few feet away in the parking lot.

A shop owner placed a sign above his door that read:”Puppies for Sale”. Signs like this always have a way of attracting young children,and to no surprise, a boy saw the sign and approached the owner.

“How much are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked in a low voice.

The store owner replied, Anywhere from $ 30 to $ 50.

The little boy pulled out some change from his pocket. “But I only have $ 2.37,”   he said. “Can I please look at them?”

The shop owner smiled and in no second whistled. Out of the kennel came a lady, who ran down the aisle of his shop followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping（跛行）puppy and said, “What's wrong with that little dog?”

The shop owner sighed and explained that the vet had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn't have a hip socket（髋臼）. It would always limp.It would always be lame.

Hearing these words, the little boy became excited, “That is the very puppy that I want to buy.”

“No, you don't want to buy that little dog. If you really want him,I'll just give him to you,” the shop owner said, a little bit confused. The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner's eyes, pointing his finger, and said, “I don't want you to give him to me.”

When Valentine's Day was around the corner, Grandma came down with a terrible cold when she was travelling from Colorado to my family's house in California. She was too weak to go out at all, which was sad and disappointing. That was because Grandma and Grandpa had been planning to take my little sister Indi and me to the zoo for Valentine's Day. Grandma, as an animal lover, had been especially looking forward to it.

On Valentine's Day Indi begged Grandma to go to the zoo together. But Grandma jokingly explained that if she went there, she might spread her cold to other visitors, or even to the animals, making them all start sneezing.

In my mind, I imagined the sight that an elephant kept sneezing. Meanwhile I made my arm into a trunk and blurted out a funny trumpeting sound that ended in a gigantic sneeze. "Good one, Brother!" Indi laughed. "That elephant would need a huge box of tissues.”

Grandma was amused. But she insisted that she should stay at home and rest up. She wished us a pleasant visit and reminded us to send her regards to the monkeys in the zoo.

Well, we did go and we did have a great time but I kept wishing Grandma could have been there with us. When we reached the monkey mountain, Grandpa told us to hold still and say “cheese" and snapped a good picture of the monkeys and us.

“Cheese!” I said. But Indi said, “Happy Valentine's Day, Grandma!”

"You were supposed to say cheese." said Grandpa.

Indi shrugged, “It just came out.”

"I'm glad it did" I said, because your words just gave me a fantastic idea! What if we take pictures of different animals, and then turn them into a special Valentine gift for Grandma?" Indi and Grandpa agreed and we kept taking pictures with delight for Grandma's surprise.

DRUMMING WITH GRANDPA

Roger was filled with excitement as his mother told him his grandfather was on his way over. He always had fun together with his grandfather who once drummed in a band. They could make the whole house shake with their joyful music. Roger got excited and practiced drumming all morning.

Finally, Dad's car pulled up in front of the house. Upon hearing the car door opened. Roger shouted for joy from his bedroom window, "Hi, Grandpa! Listen to this!” Taking a deep breath, he raised his drumsticks and began rocking and rolling, just like Grandpa had taught him. Jumping up. he raced outside to his grandfather and asked, "Grandpa. what do you think? Are you ready to drum together?" Grandpa, giving Roger a hug, said. "It was wonderful, but I'm afraid I can't play right now.” Dad smiled at Roger, telling him some of Grandpa's finger joints were hurting him and that maybe he would want to play after a short rest. Roger didn't ask again.

After lunch, Roger went to his room to get his skateboard, finding someone had already stepped into the room. It was Grandpa who stood near the drum set. He picked up a drumstick and began to play. Thump! Thump! But just with two thumps, the drumstick fell onto the floor. Grandpa reached for it, trying to pick it up, but the drumstick fell out of his hand. He tried again and the same thing happened. Grandpa moved his red and swollen fingers, looking upset. Seeing this, Roger shut the door noiselessly. He walked to the sitting room where Dad was reading and asked Dad to drive him to his friend's house. "David has a drum with the pedal （踏板）and I'd like to borrow it," Roger told Dad about his plan. Dad got the car keys and off they went.

''Grandpa, a surprise!” Roger shouted when they returned with a big box.

Slowly, Grandpa reached out his foot and pushed the pedal as Roger did.

6 . What is volunteer travel?

Volunteer travel involves taking a trip where all or part of the purpose of the trip is to participate in an arranged service opportunity helping others. Typically, the volunteer activity takes place in a foreign country, but some opportunities can involve national or regional projects.     1    

Charitable interests often go far beyond national boundaries. People in developed countries become interested in the struggles of people in less developed countries.     2     Volunteer travel is a way to combine a visit to a new location with meaningful work that has a direct impact on communities in other parts of the world.

    3     Historically, church groups made up a large part of this market. Once a year a religious organization or church would organize a trip to another country.     4     For example, it would be to help build a school in an impoverished(贫困的)area, or dig wells so a village would have clean water, or engage in hundreds of other projects that would impact those less fortunate. As international travel became easier and the Internet made communication between countries much easier, the interest in volunteer travel increased.

    5     Volunteering in other countries has become as accessible as browsing a website and signing up. Instead of traveling with a group that is organized at the volunteers home base, the volunteer may join a group that gathers at the worksite from all over the world. This sort of volunteer travel is sometimes referred to as voluntourism or vacanteerism.

I’m Li Hua, ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________