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Owing Mills, MD - Growing up in China, Sareen Ziyun Zhang had no siblings. Despite this – or maybe because of it – the Garrison forest school senior connected strongly with the many boys and girls she met at the Lijiang Ethnic Orphan School in Yunnan, China.

“The children call me ‘big sister’,” Zhang recalled in her acceptance speech for the President’s volunteer Service Award. “The orphan school has become my other home.” Zhang was awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award on October 4, 2011 by Chili Tong of the International Leadership foundation. The award recognizes individuals, families, and groups that have achieved a certain standard – measured by the number of hours of service over a 12-month period or cumulative hours earned over the course of a lifetime.

To date, the President’s Council has partnered with more than 80 Leadership Organizations and more than 28,000 Certifying Organizations to bestow more than 1.5 million awards. Zhang received the award for creating the BFF Club (Bridge of Friendship Forever) at the Garrison Forest School and inviting increased dialogue between Chinese and American students. Zhang started her club in 2010 with the help of the China Children and Teenager’s Fund, and the Garrison Forest James Center'sGlobal Service and Learning program. The majority of the 300 children in the Lijiang School have lost family members due to China's recent earthquakes. To date, the service club has sponsored two visits from a group of Garrison Forest students to the Lijiang Orphan School where the American students taught the orphans about American language and culture and in return, learned about aspects of Chinese culture – including kung fu, guzheng, calligraphy and the hulusi.

This fall, the students from Lijiang were able to visit the Baltimore based girl’s school for the first time. The two day program consisted of musical performances, nature walks, cultural excursions and a trip to the Chinese embassy. On October 6, the Garrison Forest community hosted a China Benefit concert featuring world-class musicians from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University as well as internationally renowned musicians from China. The concert raised money for various charities helping children in China, including the Lijiang Ethnic Orphan School.

“It was a truly bridging experience,” said B.J. McElderry, the coordinator of the Confucius Classroom at Garrison Forest. “They [the orphans] fit in quite seamlessly.”

Mcelderry hoped that the Garrison forest school students would see the similarities between them and the Chinese visitors and it would spawn a greater interest in international camaraderie. And it seems that this is indeed what happened.

“We had a lot of participaton during the mid-autumn festival. We usually expect around 15 kids; this time we worked with 80 kids,” she said. In addition, many new students have signed up for Chinese language classes.

For Zhang, this connection between her old home culture and her new home is more than she could hope for. The senior immigrated to the United States 6 years ago, but has not forgotten her Chinese roots. She credits her parents and grandparents for “teaching me how to love, and introducing me to this very special place called love.”

It is clear that to her, families are the most important pillar of support she believes in. Luckily for her, and the orphans she calls brothers and sisters, she doesn’t have a shortage of families to choose from.