The reporter learned that Liu Jiahao, the high school student who donated the money, came from a privileged background. His father was the president of a catering company, and the 75,000 yuan he donated was accumulated over many years from his lucky money and pocket money. Liu Jiahao said that he did this to help poor students and encourage more classmates to participate in reading.
Yesterday morning, Wang Shunji, principal of Lanling Middle School, introduced to the reporter that their school was one of the first public schools in Changzhou to accept children of migrant workers. Liu Mingkun, Jiahao's father, was the manager of a catering company which contracted the school canteen. In 2010, Liu Mingkun donated 500,000 yuan and 1 million yuan respectively to establish the "Sunshine Scholarship Assistance Fund" to help Lanling Middle School and other primary and secondary schools across the city with students who were both academically excellent and from impoverished families.
Speaking about the process of establishing the "Jiahao Bookhouse," Principal Wang Shunji said that at the end of last year, Liu Mingkun approached her, proposing that "his son wanted to donate all his accumulated lucky money and pocket money over the years and even wanted to volunteer at the school to help those poor students." After considering, Principal Wang suggested setting up a book house, which eventually received the approval of Liu Mingkun and Jiahao. Principal Wang Shunji introduced that the total funding for building the book house was 75,000 yuan, to be donated over five years at 15,000 yuan per year, mainly used to purchase classic works suitable for middle school students to read.
Liu Mingkun stated that the 75,000 yuan used to build the book house was all accumulated by his son over the years from his lucky money and pocket money. "Although our family conditions are relatively good, Jiahao is very frugal in daily life and never spends money recklessly," Liu Mingkun said. The family gave their child 100 yuan as pocket money every week, and he would save whatever he didn't spend. Over time, along with the lucky money given by relatives each year, there was a small accumulation in the child's bank card.
Yesterday, on the Hualongxiang forum in Changzhou, a post titled "A first-year high school student donates 75,000 yuan to build a book house, how can this kid have so much money?" attracted widespread attention. The post mentioned that on the afternoon of February 6, during the opening ceremony of Lanling Middle School, first-year high school student Liu Jiahao donated 75,000 yuan under his own name to establish a book house for Lanling Middle School, which was also the first book house donated and built by a current student in Changzhou.