Different People Spark the Same
By Jiahui Pan（潘佳慧）
Figure/volunteers in Penn State University
Regis, 76 years old, was sitting on the bench outside the polling place, with white beard and a corpulent body. Yesterday was the Election Day. He came to vote about 7:20,who was very conspicuous among the early voters because most are young.
After conversing for a while, I knew that he was an electrician working in Washington D.C. when he was young, having gone to white house, congress and some other places.About 15 years ago, he was retired and went back to Pennsylvania to study in Penn State University.(https://www.daowen.com)
When I asked him whether he did voluntary work, he said excitedly:"yes!" And then he let me see the sign on his right arm. "PENNSYVANIA AFL GIO COPE", was the abbreviation of "American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations",and "COPE" meant "committee on political education". He had been working for the organization years by years, "what we do is to try to educate people. We provide them with the information to make them better informed voters, and we provide them facts instead of fictions." Regis said. He often sat in the office and made phone call, he had persuaded three people to be happy and helped them out of trouble whose wife passed away. He always felt happy no matter what his effort came out for he had tried to help people. When asked whether he would continue the voluntary work, he said: "I don't have many years left, I'm 76, I may have one more presidential election, but…"With gales of laughter...
When everyone focused on the results of the presidential election, a vast number of volunteers put aside their work, gathering together to make the voting progress smoothly and successfully. No matter who they support, no matter where they come from, no matter how old are they and how tiring the work is, they sitting in the front of the table conscientiously, standing around the polling places persistently and keeping the voting done in an orderly way responsibly.
Bethany is a high school student whose school is about 5 minutes away from the Friends Meetinghouse (one of the polling places). On the Election Day, she arrived at 6:30 and would finish at 8:00, making sure that everything has been completely done. She thought it had a lot of fun because she could communicate with people and know how everything works. "It can help your character and help to realize other's fortunate."Bethany said lively.
I also remember the students for different parties standing outside the Alumni Hall (one of the polling place of Penn State University), spreading the stickers and other propaganda materials. I also remember the volunteers standing in the cold wind to tell people patiently where to vote. We don't know how they raise money to help the campaign and let the voting happen, we don't know how they knock door to door to let people be informed. Without their work, a lot of things couldn't be carried on successfully.
We do the voluntary work not because of the extra score we can get, the good performance of your resume or the superficial fame that we are eager to gain, it is a matter of your genuineness to help people, your passion to serve the people and your patriotism to assist the country. Different people can spark the same.