‘We face challenging times’ – Jeremy Lin donates US$300,000 to help fight coronavirus
- The Beijing Ducks star is using donations from his basketball foundations to help fight the ‘scary’ threat of the virus
- The NBA champion asks fans to make a global impact by donating as well, saying ‘let’s focus on what we can do in these challenging times’
Jeremy Lin said he will donate US$300,000 from his basketball foundations to help the global fight against coronavirus, stressing on social media that “we face challenging times”.
The former NBA star has made it known in social media posts in the past week that he was “scared” of the growing threat of Covid-19 and that he has asked his 1.9 million followers on Instagram to also make a donation to unicefusa.org/jlin7, to help the cause as the world continues to be affected by the disease.
Lin, who plays for the Beijing Ducks in the Chinese Baskeball Association (CBA) after leaving NBA champions Toronto Raptors at the end of last season, said he had recently increased his donations, matching his US$150,000 China foundation donation with an additional US$150,000 contribution to Unicefusa.
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“Lets focus on what we can do in these challenging times. In our effort to battle this virus, I’m matching my $150K China foundation donation with an additional $150K contribution to @UNICEFUSA to help fight COVID-19 globally while partnering with governments,” Lin said on Instagram.
Lin’s post received more than 57,000 likes and the former New York Knicks player said it didn’t matter how much people donate “just encouraging everyone to take one step to love someone in need”.
“Love melts hate. Light outshines darkness. Be apart of the change you wanna see. Stay together, much love,” he wrote.
Lin said in his post that “what we gotta do, to survive” and said it was time for some changes. “Let’s focus on what we can do in these challenging times”.
Two days earlier, Lin posted on Instagram that he had been monitoring “coronavirus and the darkness it’s cast over the world”.
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He said through his basketball foundation in China they have donated 1 million yuan to “get medical equipment to Wuhan”.
“Let’s do our part to quarantine, wash our hands vigorously, wear a protective mask to avoid germs spreading and do our part share facts and preventive measures/ Stay together, fight on,” he wrote earlier in the week while denouncing racism and xenophobia towards Asians presumably because the virus broke out in Wuhan province.
