
St. George’s participates in Mission Project 2011-NetsforLife®
St. George’s is participating in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota’s Mission Project 2011- NetsforLife®-with a goal of purchasing anti-malarial bed nets for people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Minnesota’s goal is to purchase one net for each Episcopalian in state-that’s nearly 20,000 nets that will help eliminate malaria.
St. George’s goal
Please join us in this NetsforLife® Lenten Mission Project. Our goal for St. George’s is one net for each member of our parish-220 nets. Each net costs $12, so our total fund-raising goal between now and Easter, when the project ends, is $2,640.
How you can participate
You can help by supporting our youth in their Rock 4 Nets (rocking chair marathon), which will be conducted from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, April 8. Support the youth by filling out a pledge card and dropping it into the mosquito net on the display board in the Parish Hall. We are asking you to pledge donations of $12 for each net that you wish to purchase. Take extra pledge cards, and ask your family and friends to make a pledge/purchase a net as well. Pledges will be collected the Sunday after Easter. Donations are being accepted now, please make your check out to St. George’s Episcopal Church with Nets for Life noted in the memo line, and place it in the Sunday collection plate.
The youth also need support for their Rock 4 Nets marathon. Please help by:
-Bringing a rocking chair that they can use during the marathon;
-Bringing food for them to eat during the marathon;
-Serving as a chaperone during the marathon; or
-Joining them by rocking yourself.
Rocking chairs need to be dropped off in the Parish Hall any time before the start of the marathon. Food can be dropped off by 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 8. Please contact Heather Whitesell, if you can serve as a chaperone, provide assistance during the marathon, or wish to rock yourself.
Our younger children are participating in this project as well. You can support them by placing donations of change in their uniquely designed mosquito collection box that will be in the Parish Hall every Sunday.
The need is great
Please, purchase a net and help protect the people of Sub-Saharan Africa from the devastating effects of malaria. Just a few facts:
- One child dies of malaria every 30 seconds in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Mothers can transfer malaria to their unborn children.
- Children in heavy malaria areas battle malaria fevers several times each year.
- Human carriers, even if asymptomatic, infect mosquitoes when they are bitten. When the mosquitoes get their next blood meal (a week later), they infect their next hosts.
- Malaria can cause permanent cognitive dysfunction and even severe brain damage, especially in children. These children will be negatively affected in school and in work for their entire lives.
- Infected blood donors, who are not yet symptomatic, transfer malaria with their blood donations.
Additional information
For additional information about NetsforLife®, visit http://episcopalmission.org/about/. For additional information about St. George’s participation, please contact Laura Harmon, Eileen Harvala, or Heather Whitesell.