Reported by: JI Xuan
Translated by: GAO Yang
Edited by: Jennifer Taylor
Updated: 2013/5/13
April 20, the news of Ya’an earthquake attracted not only HIT people’s attention, but also the attention of HIT alumni in Sichuan. The alumni participated actively in the earthquake relief. On April 21, reporters spoke with the Secretary-General of the Sichuan HIT Alumni Association YIN Xiaohua, who majored in Foundry and enrolled HIT in 1979, and the Deputy Sectary-General YAN Runhao, who majored in Communication Engineering and enrolled HIT in 2004. Secretary-General YIN and Deputy Sectary-General YAN described the role that the alumni played in transporting relief materials on April 20.
On the evening of April 20, Deputy Secretary-General YAN saw the message on the microblog that some relief materials from the Sichuan Material Supply Reserves Center, which located near the Shuangliu Airport, needed to be transported by volunteers. He released the news immediately to the Sichuan HIT Alumni Association. Vice Chairman of Sichuan HIT Alumni Association XIONG Wei, who majored in Biology and enrolled in 2001, TIAN Zaixing, who majored in Municipal and Environmental Engineering and enrolled in 2010, and other alumni and their friends formed a 12-member team and went to the Sichuan Material Supply Reserves Center together. One alumnus XUE Wei, who majored in Forging and enrolled in 2007, rode forty minutes by electric cart from Xindu to Chengdu to participate in the activities. There were a total of 20 military vehicles in the second wave of relief materials, and the volunteers were divided into 15 groups, with the alumni included in the 8th group. In the tense process of transporting relief materials, the alumni always ran ahead and worked hard. At 4:00 am. on April 21, the alumni finished transporting three and a half cars’ worth of relief materials. When they came back home, it was already 5:00 am.
According to reports, after the Ya’an earthquake, Chengdu also felt the quake strongly. But due to the experience of the May 12 earthquake, people in Sichuan were still calm in the face of the disaster. The alumni felt warm and thankful to the care of HIT when they saw the greetings and concern on HIT’s official microblog. The alumni cared about not only about the disaster conditions, but also the students in the disaster area. They released a message on the microblog, “Thanks for all the concern from teachers and students of alma mater. Until now all the alumni are good. If any student in school cannot contact families, contact us.”
“With the sense of responsibility, attitude and duty, I support our alma mater!” “I am a student of the School of Astronautics who enrolled in 2010. I want to ask the alumni do you accept donations? How can I donate to you? I hope I can help with something. Ya’an come on!” “If you need any volunteers, contact me. Just for Ya’an, we are a family!” “Ya’an come on! Alumni come on! We don’t want to help blindly and inefficiently, so we hope the Alumni advise us of needs in the frontline. Although we are in Harbin, we still want to do something to help”. Hearing the news of alumni participating in the earthquake relief, many teachers and students left messages on the microblog of the Sichuan HIT Alumni Association that they wanted to help. The Sichuan HIT Alumni Association said it would collect the offers of helping in the disaster area, and gave them to the relevant departments. He hoped that people could actively participate in the post-disaster reconstruction.
