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Volunteers help passengers at Hualien
Train Station
By Lin Hsin-han and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with Staff
writer
Hualien station master Wu
Ching-tien, third right, poses for a photograph with volunteers who have been
helping people with their luggage at the station, in Hualien on Tuesday.
Photo: Lin Hsin-mei, Taipei Times
Starting earlier this month, calls of
¡§Does anyone need help carrying luggage?¡¨ rang out across the platforms of
Hualien Train Station as volunteer workers offered to help carry passengers¡¦
luggage or baby strollers.
One of the main promoters of the campaign was Lin Hui-mei (ªL´f±ö), a student soon
to start her third year at high school and a member of the Hualien Hand-in-Hand
Teen Service Center.
Lin said she had wanted to be a volunteer ever since her family received help
from other kind-hearted people when her father fell off a roof and was unable to
work.
When she started commuting to Taipei to work two years ago, Lin said that she
often helped elderly and disabled passengers, as well as passengers with
strollers, carry luggage.
A lot of elderly passengers choose to take the local train or the Chukuang-class
(²÷¥ú) trains to save money and they often stop at the station¡¦s No. 3 platform,
which has no escalator, Lin said.
Lin said that because the escalator on the first platform often breaks down, she
gathered together a group of classmates to help out during summer vacation as
one of the center¡¦s programs to help others.
At first, everyone was shy and not sure what to do. There were even those who
expected some kind of reward for helping others, Lin said.
However, the smiles and gratitude of passengers were more than enough for most,
motivating everyone to do whatever they could to help.
Huang Ching-hui (¶ÀÀA¼z), a graduating student accepted this year into Tzu Chi
University¡¦s social work research department, also helped out during the summer.
¡§Helping others carry their luggage is very meaningful and helping other people
is akin to helping oneself,¡¨ Huang said.
Students are not the only group that have taken an interest in the campaign.
Chen Yi-wei (³¯«³ºû), an engineer from Taipei, spent his three-day break helping.
¡§It was a great experience,¡¨ he said.
Hualien station master Wu -Ching-tien (§dª÷²K) said the station is very busy during
the summer, with an average of 20,000 passengers coming and going each day.
¡§We would like to thank the volunteers for helping travelers with their luggage
and we hope that the campaign serves as an example of social values and social
responsibility for young people nationwide,¡¨ Wu said, adding that he hoped the
campaign would help bring out the good in people across the country.
According to the center¡¦s Taipei office director, Kuo Tsung-ti (³¢©v´Ð), when the
campaign first started, it was initially assumed that participants would just
help passengers carry their luggage, but after a few days, it became clear that
most passengers needed directions as much or more than they needed help with
their luggage.
With the experience of the campaign in Hualien under its belt, the center is now
planning to launch simultaneous campaigns in Taipei, Greater Taichung, Greater
Tainan, Greater Kaohsiung and Taitung train stations on Aug 26. Kuo said.
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