Nothing But Nets

With the Boy Scouts, Concerts, and the Colorado Rapids, we had a great time in the mile-high city. Though three days of straight rain had us feeling like we were back in Seattle, we kept on trucking—and on the one day the sun came out, so did the camera crews! Here’s a clip of Mozzie and crew on the evening news!

From New York to New England…the Buzz Tour rolled into Boston last week to visit some old friends, and make some new ones.

We started off at the Boston Museum of Science where Mozzie was a huge attraction for students of all ages.  As we’ve seen so far on our tour, teachers around the country want their classes to join the movement to end malaria by incorporating Nothing But Nets into their courses — we’re so happy to hear that! You can always go to the It’s Easy to Help tab on this site to get ideas and resources for any group to get involved.

Last week, the Buzz Tour hit the Big Apple. We kicked off our week of loving NY at the NY Red Bulls soccer game, where thousands of fans showed their support for Nothing But Nets and the goal to end malaria deaths by 2015. A DJ, dancing Mozzie, “soccer skee ball,” and prizes meant pre-game fun for everyone! We were really happy that so many NY Red Bulls fans already knew about Nothing But Nets and had been sending nets and saving lives with their friends, schools, and soccer teams! Supporters like you are helping kick malaria out of Africa.

We spent the next couple of days spreading the buzz around the city so nice they named it twice -- New York, New York. We went from Union Square to Times Square (on the subway!), and locals and tourists took more than a New York minute to learn about malaria, and how they can be a part of ending it forever. A lot of the tourists were excited to learn that NothingButNets.net lets anyone help from anywhere in the world.

Co-authored by Andrea Gough

What do NBA legend Scottie Pippen, actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin from Superbad) and the Dallas community have in common?  They all saved a life at All-Star!

Fans from across the country came out to “Sink a Net. Save a Life.” during NBA All-Star weekend. Nothing But Nets’ founding partner, NBA Cares, donated $10 to send a life-saving bed net for every shot made on our hoop at Jam Session. It may be that love was in the air because of Valentine’s Day, or it may be that our awesome supporters are also great athletes, but basketball fans wore their hearts on their sleeves and sank 2,500 life-saving shots! Now that’s what we call being an All-Star!

Check out some of our footage on Flickr.

There's something big coming to the Lone-Star State from February 11-14 … it involves tall athletes, revolves around nets, and creates a lot of buzz wherever it goes…

Well, make that two big things: Nothing But Nets and NBA All-Star 2010!

Exactly two years ago, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and Dallas City Council Member Angela Hunt declared February 4-10, 2008 Nothing But Nets Week, and many of you helped us spread the buzz around town to send nets to save lives in Africa. This year, we’re excited to come back to Dallas to join NBA Cares, one of our founding partners, at NBA All-Star’s Jam Session.

From Thursday through Saturday, Nothing But Nets will be at NBA All-Star Jam Session at the Dallas Convention Center, and we’d love to see you if you’re in the area! Everyone who stops by our booth will have a chance to join NBA players in saving lives — and it couldn’t be easier: Sink a Net. Save a Life. For every NBA fan — from preteens to pros — who sinks a net on our Nothing But Nets basketball hoop during the All-Star Jam Session, NBA Cares will donate $10 to send a life-saving net to Africa!

If you can’t make it, follow us on Twitter @NothingButNets or on Facebook for live updates, and tell your friends!

This weekend is all about fun, friends and basketball — the chance to save a life only makes it better. Remember, long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets are the best Defense! Defense! Defense!

Hope to see you there! 

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!”

My friend just handed me this article about the Bell family in Cherry Hill, NJ. Nine-year-old Courtney and her 12-year-old brother Tyler are spreading the buzz by saying Boo! For the second year in a row, they’ve turned their backyard into a garden of ghouls where their neighbors can give $10 to be scared out of their gourds.  Courtney and Tyler are hosting this haunted trail to raise money to send nets and save lives in Africa through Nothing But Nets. Last year they raised $430 - that’s 43 nets! Their goal for this year is $600- way to go guys!

We absolutely love hearing stories like this one; we are constantly inspired by your dedication to help families in Africa by keeping them safe from malaria. And what’s even cooler is that other supporters are reaching out to this brother and sister team to help out and send nets and save lives, too!

Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Kathy Calvin, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the UN Foundation, joined the Nothing But Nets team on September 11 at an anti-malaria workshop we hosted, as part of President Obama’s United We Serve initiative and the official September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance activities.

Ambassador Rice and Kathy Calvin worked with more than 100 students from the United Nations Association’s Global Classrooms® and the School Without Walls to educate them about malaria and encourage them to work within their communities to help prevent the deadly disease.

Ambassador Rice gave an inspiring speech which really hit home. On September 11th, we remember all of the people who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks eight years ago. Ambassador Rice talked about how deeply that loss affected all of us in the United States. She then pointed out that nearly 3,000 people (about the same number of victims from 9/11) die every day in Africa from Malaria and related illnesses. Every day — woah. Her exact words were “Malaria is Africa’s 9/11” — that gave me chills.