Desert blooms from act of kindness

Ronald Sakolsky, a retired teacher affectionately known as Mr S by his former students, lives a typical middle-class life in Plum, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Barbara, his wife of 46 years.

But the 69-year-old's life has become quite extraordinary in recent months after his act of kindness in China 27 years ago brought about a touching reunion.

In 1999, he raised $5,000 from an organization in Boston, Massachusetts, to help environmental hero Yin Yuzhen combat severe desertification in the Maowusu, China's largest sandy area, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The father of four and grandfather of eight remains extremely humble about his selfless actions and insists he's not a hero.

"I'm just an actor in the play that was designed back in 1999," he said in an interview with China Daily. "Ms Yin is the hero. I was like the stick that put the hole in the ground. She put the saplings in and watered them to create the 50,000-tree forest.

"If my story gets other people involved, not just in stopping the desertification of China, but just involved to make the two cultures more similar, then it did its purpose."

Sakolsky was teaching English at Luoyang No 2 Foreign Language School in Henan province in 1999 when he sought the donation. He saw an appeal for funds on CCTV by Yin, who wanted to turn an area of the Maowusu sandy area into a lush, green forest.

At that time, $5,000 was enough to buy a small apartment. But when she received the large donation, Yin spent every penny on saplings and kept just $1 as a souvenir.