Boston brings it for Nets

Boston was truly an amazing city tour. The Museum of Science allowed us to put up a bed net display in a key location in their lobby and this enabled us to speak with hundreds of very engaged people, both young and old. Children were able to climb onto the cot under the bed net to get a sense of how it works and both parents and children wrote very special messages of hope to refugees in Africa. It was a wonderful start to our tour!

That Sunday, the Nothing But Nets team presented at a Union for Reform Judaism breakfast.  The ideas and energy in the room were completely inspiring. The group of people, gathered from four different temples, want to work together to create a very successful Nothing But Nets fundraiser and are very anxious to get started!

We then moved on to the Celtics In-Arena where two 8th-grade girls from Greenfield Middle School were recognized during the Heroes Among Us game highlight for their fundraising efforts towards Nothing But Nets. The reality of seeing 19,000 fans (a completely sold out arena) give a standing ovation to two young girls, while the importance of the campaign was highlighted in a very clear and wonderful way, was amazing to see. It brought tears to my eyes. I imagine it was more than an unforgettable day for these two girls.  The Celtics immediately followed up the award with our PSA on the jumbotron, again with the attention of all the fans. By half-time, people were coming up to our concourse table, anxious to learn more about our campaign.

Monday was also a truly special day, as it continued our theme of recognizing our supporters. An area school, North Middle School, had raised $6,500 over the past four months for our campaign, and they brought out 94 students to a malaria youth workshop. Together with two very fun Celtics players, JR Giddens and Bill Walker, six Academy Revolution players, Bishop Weaver, and Dr. Norman of the Boston Public Health Commission, we were able to recognize a very dedicated teacher who went above and beyond her curriculum to bring global awareness to her students. Despite the star power, I believe she was everyone’s greatest hero in the room.

A couple days later, we held a Nothing But Nets fundraiser at a local bar in downtown Boston, JA Stats. We were joined by Mozzie the Mosquito, New England Revolution player Rob Valentino and a couple of Celtics dancers. We were able to raffle off cool prizes like tickets to both Revolution and Celtics games, a signed Revolution jersey, and signed Celtics photos. We had a blast spending time with our supporters and look forward to more of these events in the future!

Despite cold temperatures and a big snowstorm, Boston proved to be a very warm and receptive city.  We really enjoyed meeting our current and new Nothing But Nets supporters throughout the week. Thank you for a great time, Boston!