Nothing But Nets

Get a date and save a life. That was Ashley Harrington’s idea to raise funds and awareness for Nothing But Nets at her school in Minnesota.

Ashley and her classmates at Minnesota State University Morehead (MSUM) received a compelling assignment in their leadership class: find a charity and plan a fundraiser. Ashley had seen a commercial featuring Nothing But Nets Champion Gavin DeGraw talking about the devastating effects of malaria in Africa, and knew right away what charity she wanted to support – Nothing But Nets!

Her group began planning a series of fundraisers and events to raise awareness for the cause across campus. They sold buttons at the student union and held a shoot-out at halftime of a MSUM basketball game, but their main event was the first ever Student Organization Auction.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released their 2009 World Malaria Report today, with good news: one-third of the 108 malaria-ravaged countries reduced malaria cases by more than 50 percent in 2008, compared to 2000. That’s a huge drop — malaria cases cut in half in less than a decade!

We just returned from a briefing on Capitol Hill in which the United Nations Foundation’s Vice President for Global Health, Dr. Dan Carucci, alongside Congressman Donald Payne and the Malaria and Neglected Infectious Disease Caucus, Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer of the President’s Malaria Initiative, and Ambassador Mark Green with the Malaria Policy Center, presented these encouraging findings. As Admiral Ziemer pronounced: “This is a good news story!”

A few years ago I wrote a Sports Illustrated column that inspired the United Nations Foundation to create Nothing But Nets to fight malaria. In only three years, hundreds of thousands of supporters like YOU have raised nearly $30 million and sent close to three million nets to children, pregnant women, and refugees in Africa. Wow.

We’re saving lives!

This year Nothing But Nets has teamed up with the UN Refugee Agency to protect more than one million displaced families in Africa from malaria, the number one killer of refugees. Good news – we’re almost there! We need 160,000 nets before December 31, 2009, to reach our goal. To get us to the finish line, I’m going to match your donation - net for net - up to a total of $25,000.

Still not enough? How about a free-throw? To make the deal even sweeter, our partners at NBA Cares will throw in two free tickets to an NBA game for every $10 donation. Send a Net. Save a Life. See a Game. That’s a full day, right?!

Seriously, refugees need nets, and need your help to get them — give the gift of life this holiday season and help Nothing But Nets drop the New Year’s Eve ball on malaria.

Wow, what a weekend! Thanks to the incredible support of our friends at MLS W.O.R.K.S., we were able to attend the fabulous events leading up to the astounding 2009 MLS Cup game held in Seattle. The weekend began with the Seattle Sounders welcome party held at the Seattle Aquarium. The venue was perfect – a great representation of the Emerald City where the Sounders FC are always greeted by a packed stadium of enthusiastic fans. My favorite was the scuba-diver dressed in Sounders FC gear playing soccer in the large aquarium, posing for photos, and having a great time dancing to his own music in the water. 

The next evening held the Commissioner’s Celebration, a cocktail event hosted by Major League Soccer Commissioner and Nothing But Nets supporter, Don Garber. Don showed a highlight reel of the past season’s games and spoke of the amazing support and enthusiasm for soccer and how it continues to grow. To underscore this, he honored U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, another malaria champion, with the Commissioner’s Award for his life-long commitment to the sport of soccer and the pivotal role he has had in its expansion within the U.S.

Elizabeth McKee Gore, the UN Foundation’s executive director of global partnerships, just wrapped up an extensive trip to Ethiopia, which brought her from rural villages to urban centers to everywhere in between. And while it’s hard to re-create such a dynamic trip in words, Elizabeth is doing exactly that with a blog series on her incredible experiences.

Elizabeth’s on-the-ground stories capture just how far the work of the UN Foundation and its UN partners reaches, whether in health or education, refugees or adolescent girls, peacekeeping or clean water. Take a minute to read these posts, and learn how the United Nations Foundation is creating a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world. Blogs five and six in the series focus on distributing life-saving bed nets to refugees in UN Refugee Agency camps.

It’s the diagnosis no one wants to hear: terminal brain tumor. If my doctor handed me this diagnosis, I’d panic and immediately start making a list of about a thousand things I still wanted to accomplish in the time I had left – and ending poverty in Africa probably wouldn’t make the list. Then again, I’m not Laurence Carolin.

Laurence was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor when he was just 13. When the Make-A-Wish Foundation learned of Laurence’s condition, they offered to make one his dreams come true. Originally, he wanted to meet the members of his favorite band, U2, but after some consideration, Laurence decided he had bigger priorities. What he really wanted was to save lives. Instead of arranging a meeting with Bono and the gang, Laurence asked Make-A-Wish to donate the money they would have spent on him to the United Nations Foundation to treat AIDS, TB, and malaria. He was quoted as saying, “I can accept dying, but I don't want to die before there's an end to extreme poverty in Africa.”

The holiday shopping season has just begun, and to spread the holiday (and malaria) buzz this year, we’re offering you 50% off your order at the Nothing But Nets Store from today through Monday. That’s four days for you to buy Buzzkill t-shirts, wristbands and hats at half off!

Use the coupon code below and enter it into the promotion code box when viewing your cart at the store. (See the screenshot at the bottom of this post to show you where that is.)

As I prepare for Thanksgiving this week, images of Joyce, her newborn daughter Priscilla, and of the hundreds of other refugees we met in Uganda fill my head and move me to think about the meaning of gratitude.

There was no shortage of thanks from the women and children in the refugee camps in Uganda. These families were grateful for a simple bed net – something we are fortunate enough not to need. But as I recall handing over these nets and messages of hope, I am the one who feels fortunate; fortunate to be able to help others in need.