The Pearl River surges with tides, and a grand sports gathering unfolds in this city. Over the past two months, the 15th National Games and National Para Games & Special Olympics have left vivid scenes and memorable moments in people’s minds. In this magnificent picture, a group of young volunteers affectionately known as the “Little Dolphins” have emerged as the warmest and most touching backdrop of this sports gala, embodying the vibrant and energetic spirit of young trailblazers with their boundless enthusiasm.
As the core division of the 15th National Games and National Para Games & Special Olympics, Guangzhou has not only demonstrated outstanding event organization capabilities, but also unfolded a heartwarming narrative of dedication, friendship, mutual assistance and progress through a series of pioneering innovations in its volunteer service system, as well as the professional services of more than 30,000 “Little Dolphin” volunteers.
The “Little Dolphins” are not only providers of services, but also spokespersons for Guangzhou’s urban vitality. Proficient in communication, courageous in taking on responsibilities and eager to showcase their strengths, they infect every visitor with the vitality of youth, and interpret the openness and confidence of “Greater Bay Area (GBA) youth” through sincere dedication. From station platforms to competition venues, from hotels to streets and alleys, these young people have woven a seamless service network with vitality, professionalism and warmth. They have made “Guangzhou-style services” the warmest footnote to this sports gala, and demonstrated the youthful demeanor of Guangzhou’s young people in the new era: willing to dedicate themselves and grow together with the city.
When it comes to volunteer services, Guangzhou has delivered an outstanding answer: encouraging the general public and young people to keep the “national priorities” firmly in mind, and integrate their personal aspirations into the grand blueprint of national and urban development. Inside the venues, they serve the overall situation with heartfelt dedication; outside the venues, they provide timely assistance to solve people’s livelihood problems. This warm current of volunteerism has further permeated every detail of social governance and the pulse of GBA integration, continuously conveying truth, kindness and beauty, spreading positive energy, driving the time-honored city to keep radiating new vitality, and writing a new-era “Guangzhou Story” with professionalism and warmth.
Volunteer Services for the Games
System Innovation: Solving Problems in the Most Rigorous Way, Forging the “Guangzhou Standard” for Volunteer Services
How to mobilize volunteers? How to train them? How to organize their work? How to guarantee their support? Guangzhou has built a complete logical framework for volunteer services at its division of the Games, and this systematic thinking is reflected in multiple aspects. In personnel organization, a “Venue-University Connection” mechanism has been adopted; through multi-departmental coordination, outstanding volunteers were selected from 69,800 applicants across 47 universities. In training systems, a five-dimensional training model integrating general training, professional training, venue-specific training, post-specific training and transition period training was constructed. In service support, a comprehensive support mechanism including psychological care was established.
“This time, we did not take the safe and conservative approach, but chose the most rigorous way to solve problems. We strived to expand the coverage of universities in volunteer recruitment, hoping to give students from more schools the opportunity to participate in this grand GBA sports event,” said Yuan Weigen, Director of the Games Volunteer Service Department under the Volunteer Affairs Committee of the Guangzhou Executive Committee for the 15th National Games. He added that the “Venue-University Connection” mechanism is expected to further promote “university-city integration”, enabling young people to grow in tandem with the city, resonate with its development and share its glory.
First of its kind, first handbook, pioneering initiative, first practice… As the “Guangzhou Wisdom” and “Guangzhou Standard” for volunteer services have been fully unveiled, multiple achievements of volunteer services at the Guangzhou Division have set national precedents for large-scale comprehensive sports events. The Guangzhou Youth League School (Guangzhou Volunteer College) has become the first national institution to independently complete the full-process, full-chain and full-coverage training of volunteers for a large-scale comprehensive sports event, training a total of 35,488 person-times of volunteers of various types.
Standardization is the core of the “Guangzhou Model”, and the training phase highlights the innovative height of the “Guangzhou Standard”. Focusing on the whole process of recruitment, training, support and incentives, Guangzhou issued 11 policies. The Guangzhou Volunteer College innovatively built the five-dimensional training system, developing 43 offline courses and 52 episodes of online video courses. The shooting of Wholehearted Care with Hands, the nation’s first teaching video on universal sign language scene plays, and the publication of the 300,000-character Technical Specifications for Volunteer Service Management of Large-scale Comprehensive Sports Events have provided scientific guidance for volunteer services. This systematic and professional training system has ensured zero errors in the service quality of volunteers. After the Games, mechanisms such as the “Venue-University Connection” and “five-dimensional training” will be transformed into long-term urban governance resources.
In terms of event organization, the Guangzhou Executive Committee for the Games organized volunteer teams to successfully complete all service and support tasks. Statistics show that during the Games, the Guangzhou Division deployed a total of 13,637 game-time volunteers (including 208 volunteers from Hong Kong and Macao), who provided services for 32 official competitions and 18 test events, covering 92 key positions such as competition assistance, arrival and departure reception, and medical support. They have received more than 13,550 person-times of technical officials and athletes, with a cumulative service duration of approximately 1.1 million hours.
Cultivating Ideals and Faith: A Profound Ideological and Political Course at a Youth Gala
Ideological and political education is not an abstract theory, but a responsibility embodied in actions. Many “Little Dolphins” admitted that participating in volunteer services at the Guangzhou Division is like attending a “mobile ideological and political course”.
Volunteer service serves as an effective carrier for ideological and political education. Guangzhou has taken volunteer service as a “mobile ideological and political course”, giving play to the practical education function of volunteer services for large-scale sports events, and creating a pioneering Guangzhou model for the integrated development of volunteer services and ideological and political education – an innovative five-ring education system featuring active registration, assessment and admission, training and growth, practical experience, and value dissemination.
This system fully reflects Guangzhou’s high attention to the ideological guidance of young people, aiming to guide young volunteers to learn, think, practice and gain insights through volunteer service practice. It is also a vivid carrier of the themed practical activity of “Understanding Guangzhou, Loving Guangzhou, Dedicating to Guangzhou”.
The volunteer services for this Games also represent a great opportunity for young volunteers from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to understand national conditions and integrate into the development of the GBA. When young people integrate their personal ideals into the grand context of the GBA gala and urban development, their act of signing up for volunteer services has elevated from a simple “willingness to participate” to a sense of responsibility of “integrating the individual into the collective”.
During the Games, under the guidance of the Volunteer Affairs Committee of the Guangzhou Executive Committee, the Guangzhou Youth League School (Guangzhou Volunteer College) launched a series of “Little Dolphin Ideological and Political Workshop” activities at the opening ceremony of the 15th National Games and various competition venues in conjunction with universities, injecting ideological and political strength into volunteer services. More than 80 themed activities including volunteer story-sharing sessions, reading seminars and volunteer aspiration lectures were held at the “Little Dolphin Ideological and Political Workshop” in Volunteer Homes such as the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center and Tianhe Sports Center, covering more than 6,000 person-times, with many volunteers from Hong Kong and Macao participating.
Mutual Endeavors: “Little Dolphins” Sharing Highlight Moments with Athletes and the City
Yang Cheng, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Guangzhou Youth League School, and Yuan Weigen, Director of the Guangzhou Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, who have been deeply involved in the training and organization of volunteer services for the Games, observed that through months of practical experience, volunteers have achieved three crucial transformations: from “college students” to “qualified volunteers” in identity, from “being asked to serve” to “willing to serve” in attitude, and from “novices” to “versatile volunteers” in capability.
Moments of brilliance for the “Little Dolphins” have been seen both inside and outside the competition venues.
Along the torch relay route, volunteers formed a human wall to ensure safety; outside the wheelchair basketball venue, they worked 12 hours a day, transporting wheelchairs back and forth along the 200-meter “Slope of Endeavor”. “We often complain about being tired, but no one has ever said they would not come back the next day,” said Yu Yi, a volunteer, speaking for the perseverance of all “Little Dolphins”.
At this Games, a beautiful bond of mutual warmth and gratitude has been forged between the “Little Dolphins” and athletes. He Haoxuan, a volunteer responsible for hotel reception at the Guangzhou Division, recently received an unexpected and precious gift: an athlete who had just finished a shooting competition stopped him, handed him a box and left. When he opened it, he found it was the silver medal the athlete had won in the competition. He politely declined and returned the medal, saying: “This honor belongs to the athletes, and our services are trivial in comparison.”
This is a mutual endeavor between the “youth partners” and the city. Guangzhou has built a stage for the “Little Dolphins” to grow and temper themselves; in return, every gesture of the “Little Dolphins” has shaped the youthful image of Guangzhou and conveyed the city’s civilized warmth.
Urban Volunteer Services
Everyone is a Host, All are Youth Partners
Volunteer services at the Guangzhou Division are not merely auxiliary work for the Games, but a key link connecting the events with the city, and serving both guests and citizens. Through scientific organizational innovation and extensive social mobilization, Guangzhou has built a dual-line service pattern of “venue + city” coordinated interaction.
A total of 157 urban volunteer service stations are scattered across the city like pearls, including 17 venue stations, 24 transportation hub stations, 64 community stations and 52 characteristic co-construction stations. Guided by the operational needs of the Games, these stations form a multi-level, wide-coverage and priority-focused service network. Integrated with micro-nano cooling coating technology, the urban volunteer service stations achieve 30% energy conservation, becoming a window where technology empowers the green Games and urban civilization. Each service station “at the doorstep” has extended into a cultural window, a science and technology exhibition stand and a community living room.
(Photo) 157 urban volunteer service stations across the city enhance urban warmth and highlight the spirit of the times through urban volunteer services.
The 18,000 urban volunteers have not only ensured the smooth running of the Games, but also extended their services to every corner of the city, achieving a profound transformation from “serving the Games” to “energizing the city”. Veterans of the “Kapok Veterans” volunteer team escort the Games; new employment groups act as “mobile observers”; hearing-impaired volunteers serve as street order guides… Volunteers come from diverse backgrounds including Party members and League members, college students, veterans, young people from Hong Kong and Macao, and enterprise employees, forming a pattern of diversified participation.
The “Vibrant Guangzhou – Universal Volunteer Action” launched during the Games has served more than 420,000 citizens through five major special initiatives. This extensive social mobilization has truly made the National Games a grand event for all citizens to participate in.
Su Siying, a volunteer from South China Agricultural University, drew a “Volunteer Post Work Map” to promote refined services. Cai Xianyou, a disabled volunteer, overcame difficulties to promote integration between people with and without disabilities, saying: “There is no distinction between ‘special’ and ‘ordinary’ volunteer uniforms. Its inclusiveness means we are all part of the Greater Bay Area.”
The participation of volunteers from Hong Kong and Macao has added a strong GBA sentiment to the services. More than 200 volunteers from Hong Kong and Macao, including Macao youth Rong Zhenzhen and Hong Kong artist Feng Zhihao, have deepened their cultural identity through volunteer services. Wong Chun Hon, a Macao student, taught volunteers Cantonese in the “Cantonese, Closer to the Heart” classroom. Volunteers from the three places have turned their local accents into bridges, and their greetings carry the affection of their hometowns. “Thank you to the Greater Bay Area for giving young people the courage to pursue their dreams,” said Rong Zhenzhen.
Up to now, more than 130,000 person-times of volunteers have taken up their posts at urban volunteer service stations across the city, with a cumulative service duration of over 600,000 hours. A total of 1,479 events under the “Vibrant Guangzhou – Universal Volunteer Action” have been held, covering more than 420,000 citizens. Since 2025, the Guangzhou “Volunteer Time” system has added 80,000 registered volunteers and 4,058 new service teams.
Everyone is a host, and all are youth partners. A simple Cantonese greeting – “Can I help you with anything?” – is the best proof of the heartfelt connection among GBA youth, and also marks the most vivid scale and warmest youthful imprint of Guangzhou’s openness and warmth.
