The 7.0-magnitude earthquake which has devastated Ya'an, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, struck a chord with the whole of society. Xu Zhihua, CEO of sportswear company PEAK, released the news on his personal Sina microblog that the Sichuan branch of PEAK collected 3,000 cotton-padded jackets for the disaster-affected area immediately following the tragic disaster.

"If cars are not allowed to enter, just open the local stores and provide the victims with free thick clothing. The donation must be sent to the victims as soon as possible." Xu stressed.

On the second day after the quake, front-line workers from PEAK sent messages that all 3,000 jackets donated by PEAK had been distributed to victims, medical staff and volunteers. To avoid using much-needed resources in the disaster-hit area, the PEAK volunteers, who had gone without sleep for two days, returned to Chengdu overnight. They said: "What we can do for the victims is limited. As long as the disaster areas need us, we are willing to start again at any time."

This is just a small detail of the rescue efforts from the whole nation. When trouble occurs, help comes from all quarters.

Upon receiving the news of the earthquake, Xu quickly called to understand the disaster situation at the Sichuan branch of PEAK and make sure that his thousands of employees were safe. He quickly assembled manpower to help the disaster area relief work. The first idea that came to his mind was donating the clothing. "The reason why I want to donate cotton-padded clothes is because I've been to [epicenter] Lushan. Lushan is a mountainous area with a big difference between morning and evening temperature and the temperature will be even lower if it rains," said Xu. As there was no padded clothing in local PEAK stores, 3,000 jackets were brought from Chengdu.

One episode particularly struck a chord with Xu. He Mei, the 27-year-old deputy marketing manager of PEAK in Sichuan, was on a business trip in Lushan county, and her hotel was completely destroyed by the earthquake. After trying to contact her for a long time, Xu finally discovered that He was safe and had escaped injury. At the same time, she organized the store staff into the disaster relief work immediately.

Besides the padded jackets, Xu said that more than a dozen employees have begun to distribute other warm clothing to victims, sometimes helped by their family members.

"Traffic is the key to relief work after a disaster. The timely and effective delivery of relief supplies should be based on not affecting government rescue vehicles. Simultaneously, the headquarters of PEAK are also in positive contact with related departments for the most effective sending supplies to disaster areas," said Xu.

Xu affirmed that the donation of the 3,000 jackets is merely the start of the aid PEAK intends to donate. It will always pay attention to the areas which have been affected by disasters and participate in the rescue at any time.