Extending gratitude in painted cups for frontline workers

With a paper cup on one hand and a coloring pen on the other, Chen Xue, meticulously paints coffee cups, as she prepares to send coffee in the hand-painted cups to medical workers fighting COVID-19 at the frontline.

"This is my way of expressing gratitude to those who are working at the anti-epidemic frontline. I hope they can feel our support and warmth when they drink coffee in these hand-painted cups," said Chen, a 29-year-old barista who runs a coffee shop with her friend in Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu province.

From Oct 18 to 28, Gansu had logged 75 local confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the latest epidemic resurgence. Measures such as mass nucleic acid testing, epidemiological investigations, closed-off management and travel restrictions have been adopted to prevent the spread of the virus.

Seeing medical staff, community workers and volunteers work day and night, Chen came up with the idea of serving them coffee in hand-painted cups. She began her efforts when a mass nucleic acid testing campaign was launched on Oct 20 and her friend wanted to order coffee for traffic policemen on duty in the cold.

Chen drew images of traffic cops and beautiful flowers on more than 30 paper cups and wrote inspirational words on them. She then posted photos of these cups on social media, drawing huge attention.

"Frontline workers are the true heroes who risk their lives to fight the virus. Many of them haven't slept for two days. I can see the rashes around their ears caused by the ear straps," Chen said, adding that many of her regular customers have also placed online orders for the frontline staff.

Chen added that she once met a sanitation worker who had not drunk water for more than 30 hours. Chen offered warm coffee to the worker, and a joyous smile crossed the worker's face.

Chen has delivered more than 300 cups of coffee to the frontline staff free of charge. She said that when she saw them enjoying her specially prepared coffee, she was left with an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

Recently, several volunteers have pitched in to help Chen with painting and delivery. "Just how I found my way to support the frontline workers, I also received support from others," Chen said, noting that heartwarming scenes never stop to play out at her cafe.

Zhang Xin, who runs a beef noodle restaurant in Lanzhou, has made similar goodwill gestures. During the COVID-19 resurgence, he provided more than 100 bowls of free beef noodles to the frontline staff.

"Since they work so hard to protect us, we are just trying to help them in our way by offering delicious beef noodles," Zhang said.

Sun Xiaohui, a 26-year-old volunteer who had worked at a nucleic acid testing site in Lanzhou, said that such acts of kindness by strangers have brought him a sense of joy. "It helps me relieve my fatigue and inspires me to keep going," Sun said.

Xinhua