Malaria fund raiser makes LaCrosse teachers blue

LaCrosse teachers Matthew Wysock and Nathan Conrath had a Blue Monday this week as part of a student project to help fight malaria in Africa.

For Wysock’s environmental sciences class, Junior Annie Fleming organized a fundraising drive for the Nothing but Nets charity organization, which provides malaria nets for families in Africa.

“Diseases in third world countries are not something you think about that often in your school science class,” Fleming told the Gazette Tuesday.

Students and their blue-haired teachers proudly show off a donation check.

To pump up donations, Fleming got the two teachers to promise to put blue tints on their hair if students came up with enough money. The $602 raised by the 94 LaCrosse students did the trick.

“Mr. Wysock was a good sport about it,” said Fleming. “I don’t think he liked it all that much, but he went through with it. He said he got same strange looks driving home.”

The hair dye was applied after Fleming gave a presentation in a school assembly on Monday on the effects and causes of malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, and how the Nothing but Nets organization’s efforts have reduced the spread of the disease, with an aim to eradicate malaria by 2015.

Nothing but Nets provides nets to families in Africa. The nets are large enough to cover an entire family of five. A donation of $10 provides a net.

As of Tuesday, the Nothing but Nets web site reported 4,208,560 nets had been sent to African families since the organization formed in 2006.

“My goal was $250,” said Fleming. “So to see the whole school come together and become aware of malaria and pitch in together for this was really cool.”

Students in the elementary school outraised their middle school and high school counterparts to earn a special ice cream party Monday afternoon.

Fleming said kindergartner Wyatt Schwartz came up with the biggest individual donation, $60.

“He told me he emptied out his piggy bank because he wanted an ice cream party,” said Fleming.

Fleming said the project has been heartening, and she may work to become a doctor after graduating to help halt malaria.

For now, she just hopes the project - the donations, the blue hair, the ice cream, the heightened awareness - will guarantee her a top grade.

“Mr. Wysock was pretty embarrassed by his blue hair. I don’t know if I’ll get an A,” she said. “But I really hope so.”

Donations to Nothing but Nets can be made through the organization’s web site: http://www.nothingbutnets.net