BEIJING - Guo Mingyi, a 53-year-old worker at a steel company in Northeast China's Liaoning province, was honored by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as a "modern-day Lei Feng" on Friday, three days ahead of the annual "Learn from Lei Feng Day".

Guo Mingyi donates blood at a hospital in Beijing on Feb 27. Guo, a worker at a steel company in Anshan, Liaoning province, has been deemed "a living Lei Feng" because he always shows himself willing to help others who are in need. Zhang Xiaochuan / Xinhua

The honor was given to Guo for his dedication in the past three decades to helping others by giving more than 60,000 milliliters of blood.

"The honor is not only being given to me, but to many people who have followed Lei Feng's spirit in their daily lives," Guo said.

"I hope the honor today will encourage more people to join in volunteering to help those in need."

Guo also founded two clubs for blood donors, having 800 members, and persuaded 1,700 other people to donate their bone marrow to leukemia patients.

"I don't have any ambitious plan for the future. For me, helping others has become part of my life," he said.

Lei Feng, a young soldier, has become known as a role model of selfless dedication because he devoted almost all of his spare time and money to helping the needy.

Lei died in an accident at the age of 22. In 1963, Chairman Mao Zedong launched a campaign, calling on the nation to learn from Lei's example. March 5 each year was later designated "Lei Feng's Day."

Before honoring Guo, Party authorities called for an improved socialist volunteer service system and regular "Learn from Lei Feng" activities.

The authorities advocated "caring activities" to help empty nesters, left-behind children, migrant workers and the disabled, as well as activities to teach about and promote civility and etiquette, maintaining traffic order and protecting the environment.

On Friday, the All-China Women's Federation launched a "Learn from Lei Feng" program in Beijing in which 2.2 million women from across the country participated in activities including caring for the elderly, left-behind children and the disabled.

Volunteer services emerged in China after the country launched the reform and opening-up campaign in the late 1970s, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers contributed to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010.

Song Mengrong, an academic in the studies of socialism, said Lei Feng's spirit should be greatly promoted now, a time when some people are losing to a degree a sense of fundamental moral values.

"Lei Feng spirit is enormously important to boosting morals among youths. It is not only about helping others but also promoting common values like honesty," Song said.

As part of the move to promote Lei Feng spirit, the central publicity authorities have planned to launch nine programs including a citizens' ethics forum to be held each year in March and the selection of a group of morals models every two years.

Liu Ce in Shenyang contributed to this story.