wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 002-Anti-malaria campaign will launch Jan. 4 at NBA store

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG> (by way of Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>)]

>
Anti-malaria campaign will launch Jan. 4 at NBA store
>

Jan. 3, 2007      

NOTE: Photographs are available with this report at
>http://umns.umc.org. 

By United Methodist News Service* 

Bishop Thomas Bickerton, president of United Methodist
>Communications, will join NBA legend Sam Perkins, Sports
>Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly and others for the global launch of
>the Nothing But Nets anti-malaria campaign on Jan. 4 in New York
>City.

The kick-off event is planned for 2:30 p.m. Eastern time at the NBA store
>on Fifth Avenue. Plans also include a malaria advocacy boot camp for
>student leaders, media appearances and interviews, and activities at the
>New Jersey Nets-Chicago Bulls basketball game on Jan. 5.

A featured participant during the launch will be Katherine Commale, a
>5-year-old United Methodist from Downingtown, Pa., who has raised $10,000
>for bed nets with help from her mother, Lynda. The two have teamed up to
>make fund-raising presentations in their community using a diorama made
>by Katherine and her brother Joseph showing how bed nets work. 

The people of The United Methodist Church are partnering with NBA Cares,
>Sports Illustrated, the United Nations Foundation, Millennium
>Promise and the Measles Initiative in a campaign to prevent malaria by
>raising funds to purchase and distribute mosquito bed nets in Africa. The
>United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist
>Communications are coordinating the church's participation.

"What this Nothing But Nets campaign signals to me is a clarion call
>for The United Methodist Church," Bickerton told United Methodist
>communicators during a meeting in Indianapolis last October. The bishop
>has said he wants to use the denomination's connectional system to engage
>United Methodist youth and others in the campaign.

An insecticide-treated bed net can protect a person from mosquitoes that
>spread malaria, a disease that kills a million people each year. Malaria
>kills one out of five African children under the age of 5.

The campaign, which got its start from a Sports Illustrated column
>by Reilly urging readers to make a $10 donation to buy a net and save a
>life, has already raised enough money to provide more than 220,000 nets.
>Accompanied by a film crew from United Methodist Communications, Reilly
>visited Nigeria last fall to talk with some of the people who have
>received nets and to see the campaign's impact.

Nothing But Nets was recognized Dec. 14 during the White House Summit on
>Malaria in Washington, along with other initiatives on malaria.

Contributions can be made to the campaign through the Advance for Christ
>and His Church, the designated mission giving channel of the
>denomination. Donations, designated for Advance No. 982015, can be made
>online at
>http://secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations/advance/donate.cfm?code=982015,
>by phone at (888) 252-6174, or by mail at Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068,
>GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Checks also can be placed in the offering
>plate of any United Methodist congregation. One hundred percent of every
>Advance gift goes to the designated ministry.

For more information about the Nothing But Nets campaign, visit
>www.nothingbutnets.net or
>www.umc.org. 

*This report was adapted from a press release by United
>Methodist Communications, with additional information from United
>Methodist News Service. UMNS is a unit of United Methodist
>Communications.

News media contact: Diane Denton with United Methodist Communications is
>on site in New York for the event. She can be reached at (615) 483-1765.
>UMNS News Writer Linda Bloom will be covering the event and can be
>reached at (646) 369-3759.

******************** 

United Methodist News Service 
Photos and stories also available at: 
http://umns.umc.org


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