Sydney Fredette has a lot of things to deal with. Not only is she a high school student, but she has also set up her own organization, Beary Merry Christmas. She volunteers to serve poor kids and families in Orange County in California, US.

    To remember her best friend who died of cancer nearly 10 years ago, Fredette decided to serve those in Orange County who are less lucky than she is. She began with the simple idea of collecting donated Build-A-Bears, the popular toy animal that is made by children themselves in the stores' workshops. Fredette then gave them as gifts to the homeless children in California.

    With donations at more than 100 bears a year, Fredette and volunteers in her organization hold activities every year. They not only give out the bears, but also many other things.

    Fredette now also holds other activities for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Halloween, providing the chance for her volunteer team to make a difference through the year.

    "I love making relationships with the people I serve." Fredette said. "The thanks they have, hearing their stories and seeing how happy they are, it's so cool."

    Future plans for Fredette include building a public food bank and providing a self-development class for students in her school who will soon attend college. Heading to college herself in the fall, Fredette is looking to stay local and continue to help out in her hometown. In fact, she was regarded as a "Dreamer & Doer" not long ago for her work in improving her community, along with 32 other high school students.

    A horse fair is an interesting place. There were young horses from the country, little Welsh ponies and many beautiful horses too. But there were also a lot of poor, thin horses, tired from hard work. I was very sad to see them.

    At the horse fair there was a man with a gentle voice and kind grey eyes. He offered 23 pounds for me, but they refused. Then a man with a very loud voice came. I was afraid he was going to buy me, but he walked off. Then the grey-eyed man came back again and said:

    "I'll give 24 for him."

    "Done," said the salesman. "He's a quality horse and if you want him for cab (出租马车) work, he's a bargain."

Half an hour later we set off for London, along country roads, until we came to that great city. There were streets to the right, and streets to the left. We went into one of the small streets, and then into a very narrow street, with small, old houses.

    My owner stopped at a house. The door opened, and a woman, a little girl and boy, came out.

    "Is he gentle, father?"

    "Yes, Dolly, as gentle as a kitten; you can pat him."

    Dolly, the little girl, patted my shoulder without fear. It felt so good! They led me into a comfortable, clean stable, and after a delicious meal I lay down to sleep, thinking "I'm going to very happy here".

    My new owner's name was Jerry. His wife was called Polly and they had two children, Harry and Dolly. The next morning they came to see me. I loved it when they patted me and spoke in gentle voices.

    "Let's call him 'Jack', after the old horse, shall we, Harry?" said Dolly.

    "Yes, let's," said Harry.

    The first week of my life as Jack, the London cab horse was very hard. The noise and the people and the traffic on the streets scared me. But Jerry was a very good driver, and that helped a lot Jerry soon found that I was ready to work hard and do my best, and he didn't whip (鞭打) me.

    He kept us very clean, and gave us as much food as we wanted. But the best thing was that we had Sundays off.

"Just because you can't see something, that doesn't mean it's not there." This old saying is quite meaningful for British artist Willard Green. The items he creates are so tiny that most of them fit on the head of a pin (针). You can see them clearly through a microscope (显微镜).

At every one of his art shows, people always ask the same question, "▲"

The answer is "Very, very carefully." So carefully, in fact, that he actually slows his breath down and works in between breaths. Willard usually works patiently under a microscope using special tools that he creates. To paint his works, he uses the hair from a fly(苍蝇) as a paintbrush.

Creating these detailed works is a very long and difficult process, and it isn't always enjoyable. "It is a terrible dream when I start but a nice dream when I finish," he says. A single item can take at least several weeks to complete.

People have asked Willard why he chose to do something that needed effort and took time. When he was young, Willard was not a strong student. He had difficulty in reading and spelling words. Some kids used to call him a loser. This made him feel small, so working on little things helped him to feel big. The smaller his work got, the bigger he felt. A newspaper reporter said, "Though his works of art are small, Willard is a great artist!"

Yao Jian has been teaching in the Sandun Primary School in Datong, Shanxi Province for more than 20 years. In 1998, he chose to teach village children after graduation. At that time,the conditions of the village school were terrible. Some students had to bring chairs from home to school because there weren't enough chairs. The number of students became smaller and smaller because many villagers took their children to cities. Some teachers left the school to search for better jobs too. The teachers who stayed there had to teach all the subjects.

"I come from the poor countryside and know how important education is for village children.I will continue teaching in the school till the last student leaves."Yao said.

Because of his great work, Yao was made the headmaster of the school in 2004. In the same year, his wife started working as a teacher there too. They took good care of the students as if they were their own children. Yao used to have a heart-to-heart talk with other teachers so that they could feel at home in the school and like their work.

Many of the school's graduates have entered college. Jiao Shufeng, one of them, said,"Yao was my favourite teacher. He helped me form good study habits. I was lucky to have him as my teacher when I was young. Inspired by him, I plan to be a teacher and help more left-behind children to get better education."