Nothin' but Nets

Hello world. Today I am giving a shout-out to a great new charitable venture by Sports Illustrated, a magazine and institution that I grew up with and still read daily. The magazine's Nothing but Net program is encouraging anyone who ever used a net to play a sport to donate to the U.N. Foundation, which will use the proceeds to purchase insecticide-treated nets for African families to fight the spread of malaria.

Rick Reilly wrote an interesting column to solicit donations for the program, which tells of the terrible spread of malaria (it kills 3,000 African children per day) and how preventable the disease can be (these nets can reduce the spread of the disease by 60%, last up to four years, and some can cover a family of four).

These nets cost between $4-$6 to purchase, and about $10 total to buy them and ship them where they need to go. 100% of your donation goes to the purchase of nets, as Ted Turner's original $1 billion donation to the U.N. Foundation covers all overhead costs. As U.N. Foundation Director of Children's Health Andrea Gay said, "every cent will go to nets." That means you will send one net for every $10 you donate. It's a simple, easy solution to an epidemic problem.

Bill and Melinda Gates have already purchased one net for every single bed in the country of Zambia. I hope you will join me and many others in sending some desperately needed, inexpensive nets to a place where they will do a lot more good than you can imagine.

To donate, simply go to the U.N. Foundation's malaria site or call 202-887-9040. Rick Reilly and the folks over at SI are asking for $20 from anyone who ever got a thrill from kicking a ball into a net, protecting a net as a goalie, or draining a long three at the buzzer, but I think any donation is acceptable. Start small if you'd like.

Reilly donated $20,000 because he estimated that he's used the word net 20,000 times in his columns over the years. Since I don't have a similar metric, I'm going to start by donating all of the proceeds from my very successful NCAA tournament pool season this year (which I won by correctly picking who was going to be cutting down nets in the Final Four). I plan to donate more in the near future.

Thanks in advance for your help with the effort. Have a great week. If you're going to see the Cubs tonight or Friday, I'll see you at Wrigley.

T