SpiritFire Mosquito Net Raffle!

It’s the SpiritFire Mosquito Net Raffle!!!!

Many of you are aware that I’ll be taking a group (6 students, a colleague and her partner) to Ghana, West Africa this coming winter, from December 18 – January 12. The students – some of them from my drum ensemble, and some who just want to learn more about Ghana – have worked hard to raise the money to go, each paying about $3300 or more for the trip (not including their visas, immunizations, etc. – it’s a lot of money!)

We’ve successfully raised enough money to cover travel and other expenses, but as you can imagine, it doesn’t leave a lot over for other things for many of them. They are really interested in doing service work while in Ghana, and have come up with a couple ideas, the most effective one being the distribution of mosquito nets. If you don’t know about the plight of people in Africa regarding malaria and a ton of other mosquito-born diseases, you can read about it here:

http://www.mosquito.org/mosquito-information/mosquito-borne.aspx

Personally, throughout my years of visiting Ghana to study music and dance, I’ve known many families who have lost children (who are partiularly vunerable) to malaria. The less expensive anti-malarial drug (chloroquine) is no longer affective against the strain in Ghana, and wasn’t really affordable to the average village resident anyway. Now the only drugs available cost as much as $5 a pill – these folks might make $1 a day, if they are lucky. The only way to really combat malaria is to help people avoid contracting the disease in the first place.

We, as a group, are now trying to gather donations for the trip once more. But not money – we want mosquito nets!

SpiritFire would like to help with this endeavor, and we are hoping you will want to help, too. So to help encourage folks to donate nets, we’re having our first (and hopefully not last) SFF Mosquito Net Raffle!

Here’s the deal: Buy a net, get a chance to win discounts on your SFF registration, or even a free entry. Of course, if you aren’t able to go to SFF this year we’ll gladly accept net donations anyway! But it’s our way of giving something back and adding some spice to the mix.

How does it work?

We need a very particular kind of net – one that will fit two people (doubles), and they need to be the square kind, as opposed to the hanging round/canopy styles (which are hard to transport and don’t work well for multiple people sleeping together). Nets must be new – we cannot distribute used nets.

If you have access to large stores with camping equipment, you can probably purchase these there – but nets can easily be purchased on the web. Here is the kind we’re looking for - campor.com seems to have the best prices:

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___86663

We’d like you to send us nets, straight to the college address below if possible, so that they arrive BEFORE December 10th.

For every net you send in, you get a chance at a severely reduced or free entry to SpiritFire!

Send in 1 net = 1 entry in drawing for $25 additional off your SFF fee
Send in 2 nets = 2 entries in drawing for $50 off your SFF fee
Send in 3 nets = 3 entries in drawing for $75 off your SFF fee
Send in 4 nets = 4 entries in drawing for $100 off your SFF fee
Send in 5+ nets = equal amount of entries in drawing for FREE 2010 SFF registration!

You can either purchase the nets and have them sent to us directly (at the address below), or ship them yourselves. Please make sure to email me and tell me: how many nets you bought (please include a tracking number or order number, if possible), when they were bought/shipped, and who you would like to enter in the raffle. If it is for yourself, we’ll use your email to notify you if you win. If you’d like someone else to win the discount/entry, you can specify that as well.

ALL DONATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE DECEMBER 10th, so we know how much we have to pack!

Ship to:

SMC in Ghana
c/o Professor Josselyne Price
St. Michael’s College
Box 345
1 Winooski Park
Colchester, VT 05439

Thank you in advance, and an update will be sent out before the trip, and then one after to share how it went.

In Gratitude,
Josselyne/SMC in Ghana