John F. Ross CVI spreads the net

They’ve already reached their goal of raising $25,000 for Plan Canada’s “Spread the Net” campaign against lives lost to malaria, but students at John F. Ross CVI aren’t stopping there.

On February 10, 2015 a team of four students and two teachers arrived at the Upper Grand board office on Victoria Road North with a variety of soups and cupcakes. Board office staff brought their own bowls and paid $5 for a helping, or voluntarily donated more.

Students in Mrs. Kingshott’s life skills class, Qais, Kaity and Ashley, did all of the work in preparing the soups and baking the cupcakes for the fundraiser. Matt, a member of the student-run Spread the Net committee, was also on hand to organize the event.

Teacher Mrs. Yanchus said that the soup fundraiser would lift the amount raised by John F. Ross to about $27,500. Fundraising efforts will continue until the deadline of February 28.

John F. Ross CVI currently leads the country in the Spread the Net Student Challenge. The next closest school is Kirkland Lake DCS, with $13,320 raised.

The top elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools will be featured on an upcoming episode of CBC’s Rick Mercer Report.

Each year, more than 600,000 lives are lost to malaria, the majority of which are pregnant women and children under five. Ninety percent of these malaria-related deaths occur in Africa.

Since 2007, Spread the Net has delivered over 2.5 million malaria-preventing bed nets to families in Africa, protecting the lives of more than 7.2 million people including children and pregnant women.

Categories: Spotlight On Schools