(Beijing) From September 6th to 7th, over 20 visually and acoustically impaired students and their teachers from Ningxia Special Education School took part in the "Together in Beijing with BMW" event. The event is jointly initiated by BMW and volunteers from Shou Yu China Norway (SYCNNO), and co-organized by BMW authorized dealer Chen De Bao and BMW warm-heart customers, to provide physically challenged students from remote area with an opportunity to experience the Olympic spirit as well as society's love and care.
During the two-day event, over 20 BMW customers accompanied the deaf and blind students coming from thousands of miles away to visit Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall and to watch 2008 Beijing Paralympic event. They also took a group tour around the Olympic Green area, the famous National stadium- "Bird's Nest", and National Aquatic Center - "Water Cube" where they luckily had chance to take group photo with the 259th torch relay bearer Mr.Tu Yueming of Beijing Olympic and "Olympic baby" Ge Mengyuan who was born at the same time as Beijing gained its Olympic biddings in 2001 and personally met with ex-president of IOC Mr. Samaranch during the Opening ceremony in Beijing. These activities have helped these students get first-hand experience Olympic Beijing's enchanted charm and the unyielding spirit of the Paralympic athletes.
"I could not believe that I would be able to fly to Beijing and watch the Paralympic Games. It is an unforgettable trip in my life. I would like to thank the warm-hearted people who helped us to realize our Olympic dream. I will take this trip as a new start in my life, and work hard after I go back home to contribute to our society." Acoustically impaired student Wang Pengli expressed her excitement about the trip and his appreciation to BMW customers with sign language. During the event, BMW customers prepared Paralympic Mascot Fu Niu Le Le as gifts to the students, to encourage them to keep up with optimistic attitude in their lives while the students also presented an excellent performance and their personally made handicrafts to the BMW customers while
As one of the event initiators, SYCNNO was founded by several young Norwegian volunteers who were teaching in Ningxia to help disabled children. One of the founders Alexander said, "It is to our greatest delight that our idea has gained strong support from BMW, BMW dealers and BMW customers. They not only provided finance support to the event, but also actively volunteered their time in accompanying students to sight seeing and watching Paralympic event. We really appreciate all what BMW and BMW customers have done for the students. It's defiantly once-in-a-lifetime experience for them. "
The effort by these students to make this trip possible started from early March this year. They've been seeking for sponsorship by making handicraft and organizing chorus performance at their spare time. Ms. Sun, one of the BMW customers, shared her feeling over the past two days, "Disabled children face many difficulties in their lives. I was deeply touched by their determination and effort to make their way to Beijing. I believe, by participating the Games and experiencing the Olympic spirit of constantly striving for self-perfection and competing toughly, that the students will take the athletes as their role model to strive forward in their lives. Meanwhile I would also like to thank BMW for providing us with this blessed opportunity to show our care to the special group of students!"
At the end of event, the teachers, on behalf of Ning Xia Special Education School presented BMW and BMW customers a honouring tablet as gift with 8 carved Chinese characters "Olympic spirit and Human Care".
As the world-famous leading automaker, BMW has been pursuing constantly after a long-term harmonious development of the enterprise and society. To vigorously attract more social forces to get involved into social contribution activities and to provide BMW customers and dealers with a platform to demonstrate their care and love is an important part of BMW China Social Contribution Activities. In China the warm-heart activities by BMW customers and dealers will be carried on. Meanwhile BMW also hopes to attract more customers and people fond of BMW brand for involvement in BMW Corporate Social Contribution Activities.
