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What’”s going on? ha . 2} get the scoop

Page 12 ‘) ie Page 12

Rick Mercer Visits UNBC!

Spread the Net campaign brings Rick Mercer to campus

HANNA PETERSEN
NEWS EDITOR

The famous Canadian TV personality and political comedian, Rick
Mercer, spent Monday March 21 on campus. The reason for his
visit is quite extraordinary. A few students decided to participate
in Rick’s Spread the Net Student Challenge campaign where
universities were pitted against each other to see who could raise
the most money to prevent Malaria. After hundreds of hours of
bake sales and campaigning, the results were announced on the
Mercer Report. Students gathered in Student Centre lounge to
eagerly wait for the results and jumped for joy when Rick Mercer
announced that UNBC had beaten every other participating
university in Canada. And by a landslide.

The UNBC crew raised well over $10,000 for the campaign. 10
bucks equals one net, that can protect up to five children from
getting bitten by an infected mosquito. That’s a lot of nets and a lot
of lives saved thanks to the UNBC spread the net crew, and the
students and community members who supported them.

Only a few days after the results were announced, Rick Mercer
flew up north to film the winning school, UNBC, for a segment on
his CBC show The Mercer Report. While Mercer’s day on campus
started early in the morning with a tour of the newly opened bio-
energy plant, countless students and community members gathered
in the Agora to welcome Rick Mercer to UNBC around noon. So
many people attended that Agora was undeniably at capacity.
People were crammed next to each other like sardines.

The room was also full of enthusiasm as drummers welcomed
Mercer to the awaiting crowd. While some expected Mercer to
provide the enormous crowd with a taste of the charm and humour
that Canada has grown to love, Mercer professionally stuck to the
issue at hand: congratulating UNBC’s efforts in combating malaria.
Also, the supportive people in attendance got first hand experience
of how television production requires a bit of repetition to get the
perfect shot.

Mercer congratulated the fact UNBC, a small university, managed
to raise more money than any other post-secondary school in
Canada . He also gave a props to the north stating that the farther
north you go in Canada, the more generous the people. The rest of
the event rally could be characterized by overwhelming enthusiasm
as people eagerly jumped, danced, sang, and chanted in unison.
The energy in the room was not only incited by the presence of a
celebrity, but a feeling of genuine pride for the University.

The activities did not end there, however. The enormous group

of people in the Agora made their way into the more spacious
court-yard and cheered as a helicopter flew above filming aerial
shots of the campus. Not long after that, the crowd again joined
Rick Mercer in the Northern Sports Centre where he put on a
Timberwolves jersey and took on our star athletes. In the spirit of
the day, Mercer announced that in a two minutes shoot out every
basket made would be another 10 bucks for spread the net. And
two minutes later, the Timberwolves earned another $920 dollars for
the campaign. ‘The one and only Rick Mercer

ONLINE SOURCE

Spread the Net was born when Rick Mercer and Belinda Stronich

travelled to Africa with Professor Jeffery D. Sachs, Director of the UN Millennium Project. There they experienced firsthand the devastating effects of malaria and the
shockingly simple solution of a bed net that was so out of reach for thousands of African families. Rick Mercer and Belinda Stronach decided to take action and co-
founded Spread the Net which would educate Canadians about malaria and encourage them to become involved and donate a net for an at-risk family. The Student
Challenge was designed to inspire students to raise money for the great cause.

At the beginning of the semester, when the UNBC Spread the Net Crew was just getting off their feet, not many people believed that The Rick Mercer Report would
actually come to campus. Nevertheless, they pulled it off with the help of generous donations from the community and students alike! The UNBC segment aired on
March 29th, shortly after Mercer’s visit. The March 29" episode was also the season finale of The Mercer Report. And according to anyone on campus, the best episode
ever.