Three-legged races and semaphore shows were some of the fun activities at a sport festival held for more than 300 volunteers on a beach in Shinan district, Qingdao, on Oct 18.

The event, the first of its kind, was for volunteers to build up their teamwork skills and promote volunteering in the district, said a local official.

"Since the Shinan Volunteers Association was founded in 2004, we have built a complete volunteer service network," said Sun Guorong, deputy head of the district's publicity department.

"In Shinan, volunteers are everywhere, from the traffic supervisors, fire safety instructors to beach lifeguards," said Sun.

During the 2008 Olympic Sailing Games, volunteers in Shinan played an important role in the overall hosting operation.

The volunteers offered water and first aid to visitors and spectators and assisted in the Olympic torch relay and game operation.

Shinan's volunteers often make the local news. On May 17, a community college student was praised as a hero after he carried an old woman who fell over on the street to hospital.

On Aug 2, two local citizens rescued a man from the sea, battling against 3 meter-high waves.

Sun said the thriving volunteer network originally resulted from an employment promotion program in 2000.

Shinan district government set up a number of temporary paid volunteer positions for community cleaners, home appliance maintenance workers and domestic service employees to help unemployed people.

The scheme inspired more people to volunteer and volunteering organizations began to spring up in Shinan.

"The government will continue to refine the contracting and administering process so that volunteers' service and their time can be recognized and managed in a more accurate and efficient way," Sun said.

Shinan has a community service network called Help to Home, which covers more than 65 communities across the district with a comprehensive variety of services and a sophisticated managing mechanism.

The employment promotion program has turned into today's government contracting for social services, but volunteers account for an increasing share of the overall service.

Apart from financial support, the government also provides free offices in community administration buildings to volunteer organizations.

The government support and active engagement of local citizens created a boom for social services in Shinan and now more than 120 volunteer organizations serve communities in the district.

Many of these organizations have made their names in Qingdao, such as Help to Home, Helpful Neighbors, Patrol May Fourth Square and HouFeng Studio.

There is also a volunteer lawyer team that protects the rights of Good Samaritans in case they are blackmailed.

"We will strive to develop our volunteer organizations with professionalism and standardization and our services will be more diversified and cover more comprehensive areas," Sun said.

"With continuous improvement and volunteer force growth, we will build up volunteer brands at a city level and even national level eventually."