Volume 2, Number 3 March, 2011
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Aida Raider
Every so often a real life story goes unnoticed. The following is the true story of one woman who truly cares.
I received this from my former missionary roommate who now lives in Singapore. I am happy to share it with you.
A Garbage Collector with a Heart of Gold!
Sixty-four year-old sanitary worker and garbage collector Li Yukun has long passed her retirement age of 50 in China but she begged the Wendeng environmental protection department to let her keep her job because she has more than 10 students to support. Since 1998, Li has helped 15 students from poor families…
Kang Yujing, a senior at Qufu Normal University in East China’s Shandong Province, is one of the 15 students helped by Li. She had been receiving 1,000 yuan yearly over the past four years from the kindhearted grandmother. But she never imagined her “Rich Uncle Li” would turn out to be a sanitary worker and garbage collector, or even a 64- year-old woman, before meeting her in April. After finding out the identity of her “angel”, the year four undergraduate of Qufu Normal University decided to visit her. When she saw Li sweeping the Wendeng Street, Kang ran towards her and held her tightly. At their meeting on April 19, 2010, Kang burst into tears in Li Yukun’s arms after learning it is this 64-year old grandmother who has been giving her 1,000 yuan each year. She had never imagined that the money given to her was from such a humble old woman doing such hard work. “I had always thought that the philanthropist was a rich man called ‘Uncle Li’.”
Before their meeting on April 19, in her thank-you letters Kang addressed her as “Uncle Li”. Li, whose colleagues call her “Iron Feet Li”, has always spent all her money helping the poor and the underprivileged. She leads a very simple life and lives in a crude home with an old donated TV set as the only appliance. Wendeng’s construction bureau has given Li 50,000 yuan for living expenses, but she has donated all of the money, against the advice of her colleagues. She also decided, after discussing it with her two married daughters, to donate her organs after her death.
Li has also donated 100,000 yuan to victims of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and to other charitable causes. Li may be just a poor garbage collector but she has a heart of gold!
It is people like her that make our world a much better place.
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God, it seems that there is so much to be done and so little time to do it. Let me step back and decide what I really need to do. Amen
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND FOUNDATION TRUSTEES MEETING
A Meeting of the Fort Collins Board of Directors and the Foundation Trustees was held on March 17, 2011 after the Regular Club Meeting at Café Columbine.
PURPOSE: The purpose of the meeting was to allocate funds to the Japan Disaster.
A Motion was made by Carole Kitchell to donate $5000 to the Japan Disaster with $2000 ear marked for Japan and $3000 going to the General Fund. It was seconded by Aida Raider. The Motion passed.
Irene Toliver, Secretary
April Programs
4/7 – Fred Kaehler Mary Beth Solano- “The Many Ways To Learn English in the Poudre School District”
4/14 – Ted Blevins John Hafnor, Author “Strange But True, Colorado”
4/21 – Bob Kitchell TBA—Either a CSU fish biologist or a forest service Specialist
4/28 – Lois Atwood Tanya Thyfault-“First Person Report on the Kidney Transplant Program
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