Chinese tree planter tracks down U.S. donor 27 years after $5,000 gift

A Chinese woman who has spent four decades greening a stretch of Inner Mongolia desert has tracked down an American who donated $5,000 to her afforestation work 27 years ago, after a video plea she posted online in early May spread across Chinese social media.

Yin Yuzhen, a national model worker who has voluntarily planted trees in the Mu Us Sandy Land with her husband since the 1980s, had long sought to thank the donor -- identified as Ronald Sakolsky, 69, a retired high school teacher in the United States -- but had lost contact with him. In her video, she invited him to return to China, saying the $5,000 he contributed through an American foundation had since grown into a large forest.

Born in 1966, Yin Yuzhen began sand control work after marrying into a family located near the Mu Us Sandy Land in Inner Mongolia in 1985. Over the past 40 years, she has rehabilitated more than 11,500 acres of sandy land, earning the National Model Worker and China's Sand Control Hero title. She spoke in 2017 on behalf of China at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Conference of Parties.

Ronald Sakolsky once worked as a foreign teacher at Luoyang Foreign Language School in Henan. In 1999, he was moved by Yin Yuzhen's sand control story while watching CCTV's English news channel. Inspired, he sent emails to numerous institutions in the United States to raise donations. An organization in Boston eventually donated $5,000 to support Yin Yuzhen and her husband in afforestation and desertification control.

Trees funded by the donation were planted deep in the Mu Us Sandy Land in the spring of 2000, with Mr. Sakolsky in attendance. By 2026, these saplings have grown into a forest with over 50,000 trees covering roughly 11,500 acres, serving as a symbol of people-to-people environmental cooperation between China and the United States.

The appeal reached Mr. Sakolsky through former students and Chinese colleagues, who contacted him by text and email to let him know Ms. Yin was looking for him. The two spoke by phone on May 17. A recording of the call, released online the following day, showed Yin inviting Mr. Sakolsky to visit and Mr. Sakolsky saying he hoped to return and plant a tree alongside her.

“At the most difficult time, Sakolsky gave me a large sum of money, which allowed me to buy so many high-quality saplings,” Ms. Yin said. “I have never forgotten and will never forget it.”

Mr. Sakolsky described the reconnection as “a miracle” and called Ms. Yin “a truly amazing woman.” He said he had long hoped to see the saplings he helped fund grow into a dense forest.

Photos from Internet

Source: China Daily