深圳国际交流学院学生举办书包设计大赛 成品将捐赠山区学生 Anna Zhao anna.whizh@yahoo.com A backpack design contest organized by students at the Shenzhen College of International Education (SCIE) was held on Saturday afternoon at the Kingkey Banner Center. The contest’s winning design will be made into 200 backpacks that will be donated to poor students in rural areas of Gansu Province in northwestern China. Ten designs by Shenzhen students entered the final competition after strict selections from dozens of sketches. The winning design was created by Tian Zhifan, a 9-year-old student from OCT Primary School, who said her design of patterns on a green background expressed a wish that children in rural areas could enjoy spring in the same way that urban children do. The contest was the first charity event completely organized by SCIE’s student-run Innovative Charity Club. Wen Xin, an organizer of the event and member of the club, said they came across three major problems in preparing for the event: finding sponsors, inviting other schools’ participation and contacting backpack manufacturers. Wen said the charity event drew little support from the public at first, but club members were not deterred and finally won support from four organizations. Xu Keyu, another organizer, said they suffered numerous difficulties in their year of preparation for the event, especially during the process of turning designs into real backpacks. They contacted many manufacturers with the 10 top designs, Xu said, but were rejected because no plant would start producing a new line for a single production run. Finally, they managed to find a manufacturer who agreed to make the backpacks, even with some changes in color from the original designs. Xu said the club would do the charity competition again next year, with a different theme based on the needs of students in rural areas. “Some club members will make use of this summer vacation to do volunteer teaching there and they will investigate what they need most,” Xu said. | 