Czech millionaire goes undercover as part of new reality show, volunteers at Romani boxing club, then surprises them with a donation
The commercial Prima television channel in the Czech Republic has launched a new reality show based on a formula that has found millions of viewers elsewhere in the world. In "The Millionaire Among Us", seven millionaires agree to enter social situations that are far removed from their everyday lives from one day to the next and to spend a week there. The first Czech millionaire to leave his firm for a week was the owner of the country's biggest amusement park, Jiří Antoš. He also got involved in activities in the Bedřiška neighborhood and volunteered at the Boxing King Klub, which is a Romani-run club full of talented boxers that Antoš said was his most intense experience. "I attended a tournament of a Romani youth boxing team and the staff negotiated my becoming an auxiliary trainer. I have never been an absolute fan of boxing, but I love the film "Glory Road", which is about a brilliant Texas basketball coach who wants to win but doesn't have a chance of finding good players among white students, so he finds Black ones and they defeat everybody. This is something similar. These guys don't have anything to do with boxing, but they've put together a team and they defeat experienced boxers. Originally I wanted to distribute my donation over three years, but in the end I paid the whole amount to them now so they can get a new gym and new boxing ring. I didn't want them to get that ring from anybody but me," he told the daily Deník.cz. Antoš, in addition to owning the Mirákulum amusement park, which is visited annually by 300 000 people, is also the owner of a joinery company that specializes in manufacturing playground equipment made from acacia wood. He sells the equipment on a large scale and installs it both abroad and in the Czech Republic.