KDSS to be featured tonight on 'Rick Mercer Report'

Kincardine District Secondary School will be featured tonight (April 3) on CBC's “Rick Mercer Report.”

On this final show, Mercer and Plan International Canada will celebrate the winners of the 11th annual Spread the Net Student Challenge – a friendly nationwide competition between schools to raise funds for bed nets in Africa.

Plan Canada is proud to be part of the iconic show as it marks the end of a 15-year-run. Spread the Net was co-founded in 2007 by Mercer, who is a dedicated champion of the student challenge, and tonight's episode will feature this year’s winning schools and their outstanding fund-raising efforts.

KDSS, a small high school in Kincardine, raised $2,300 this year in the challenge, mainly through the efforts of the Free the Children/Me to We group.

Besides KDSS, the winning schools include:
 

• • Stewarttown Middle School, Georgetown, Ontario (top elementary school)
• • Holy Names Catholic High School, Windsor, Ontario (top secondary school)
• • Dalhousie University – Golden Key Chapter, Halifax, Nova Scotia (top post-secondary school)

“It’s bittersweet to be celebrating the passion, creativity and commitment of young people from across the country as we wrap up of the show,” says Mercer. “The many students, educators and communities who have participated in the Spread the Net Student Challenge over the past 11 years have demonstrated that giving back truly has no borders. I’m so proud of this program and the impact that we’ve made on preventing the spread of malaria in the Global South.”

Fifty schools participated this year, raising funds for bed nets that will prevent malaria-infected mosquitoes from biting children and their families. Since 2007, Plan International Canada’s Spread the Net Student Challenge has garnered the support of 866 elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools across Canada, which have raised close to $2-million for the cause.

“We are honoured to have had this long-standing partnership with Rick and the 'Rick Mercer Report' on our Spread the Net Student Challenge,” says Caroline Riseboro, president and chief executive officer of Plan International Canada. “Rick is an incredible champion of this initiative, and the show has been an invaluable platform for us to raise awareness and galvanize young leaders and their communities around the issue of malaria.

“We want to thank and congratulate Rick and everyone involved with the 'Rick Mercer Report' on 15 wonderful years informing and inspiring Canadians, and also congratulate and thank all of the students who participated in Spread the Net this year – I can’t wait to see it all come together on tonight’s show.”

Plan International Canada will continue the Spread the Net Student Challenge next year.

Global efforts to end the malaria epidemic are making significant progress, but more than 400,000 people still die of malaria each year, the vast majority of which are children under the age of five.

Plan International Canada’s Spread the Net impact in numbers:
 

• • During the past 11 years, Spread the Net has helped protect the lives of more than 41.7-million people by delivering 19.1-million insecticide-treated bed nets to families in Africa
• • 866 elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools have participated in the Student Challenge across Canada
• • Schools have raised close to $2-million for the purchase and distribution of bed nets through Plan International Canada’s malaria prevention efforts