Hayley Goldfarb

               Somehow another year has come and past and we are back the most exciting time of the year here at NT: charity week!

               And with charity week (which is next week, in case you didn’t know) comes education week, the week before charity week that aims to educate staff and students about the charity the school is raising money for. As education week comes to a close, I hope that everyone benefited from some of the amazing initiatives run by this year’s education week committee. As you all hopefully know, the charity NT is raising money for this year is Spread the Net, a great charity that raises money to send bed nets to Africa to stop the spread of malaria. Hopefully, you picked up a malaria statistic on a slip of paper from one of the education committee members, or attended a question and answer session, or did/plan to stop by the bed net instillation in the commons. And if you didn’t manage to get educated, now’s your chance!

               Spread the Net aims to stop the spread of Malaria by providing bed nets to families in Africa. This helps to stop the disease because Malaria is spread by mosquitos, which carry the deadly disease. Malaria is responsible for 780 000 deaths annually, and kills an African child every 45 seconds. 

               We at North Toronto have the opportunity to help stop this deadly disease by raising money for Spread the Net. A net purchased by Spread the Net only costs $10 and helps save lives by preventing children and adults from getting bitten when they’re sleeping and unable to defend themselves from mosquitos. Spread the Net has provided over 500 000 bed nets and counting to Rwanda, Liberia and Uganda.

               And as an added bonus, Spread the Net is co-chaired by Rick Mercer and Belinda Stronach. It is also supported by many other celebrities including hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser and past Toronto mayor David Miller.

               Make sure you bring lots of change to donate to this great charity next week!