By Stowell P. Watters
Staff Writer
    Dancing can save lives. That is the message of an upcoming swing and jazz dance at Atlantic Hall in Cape Porpoise. Proceeds from tickets will be used in the purchase of mosquito bed nets for underprivileged children in Africa to protect them during the time when they are most vulnerable to contracting malaria from a mosquito bite – when they sleep.
    “The number of children that die of malaria – a preventable disease – is alarming,” said Pastor of the United Methodist Church on the Cape, Ruth Merriam.
    The church organized the dance and the collaboration with the Nothing But Nets (NBN) malaria prevention campaign.
    “Buying these nets is a quick and easy way to help the malaria problem,” she said.
    According to NBN’s Web site, www.nothingbutnets.net, malaria kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds. World-wide, more than one million children die from malaria every year with 90 percent of these deaths occurring in Africa. Even when children do survive they are often plagued with health problems for the rest of their lives.
    Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes and caused by a parasite that can live in the saliva of the insect. When a mosquito carrying malaria pierces the skin of a victim, the parasite jumps ship, causing chills, a flu-like illness and, if allowed to proliferate, death – according to the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC). Additionally, malaria can manifest itself in the form of organ dysfunction, anemia and intense cerebral complications (called cerebral malaria) according to research posted on the CDC Web site, www.cdc.gov.
    But the question remains, why is malaria such a problem in Africa? The CDC identifies a plethora of catalysts for the disease’s reemergence: a growing resistance of the parasite to chloroquine and other quinolines, traditional prevention drugs, the mass migration of people into areas of high malaria transmission as a result of civil unrest and armed conflict, changes in rainfall patterns and water development projects which create expanses of stagnant water (ideal mosquito breeding grounds) and high birth rates, which lead to the rapid increase in the population of those most susceptible to the disease – children under the age of five.
    Nothing But Nets is a campaign created by the United Methodist Church, The National Basketball Association’s NBA Cares program, Sports Illustrated and the United Nations as well as other corporate, multi-media and financial partners, to provide the American public with a way to donate money for the purchase of special mosquito bed nets, according to Tri-State District Superintendent for the United Methodist Church Jan Davis.
    “These nets work in two ways, firstly they prevent the mosquitoes from biting the children while they sleep. They are also coated with an insecticide that doesn’t harm the children, but kills the bugs as they land on the nets,” Davis said.
    At a June 2007 New England United Methodist conference the secretary for that event, Ralph Odour, shared with the crowd how he lost his own brother to malaria. His brother’s life, Odour said, could have been saved for $10 – the cost for one of the bed nets.
    Davis, motivated by what she heard at that conference, challenged the 74 churches under her jurisdiction to raise money for NBN. Merriam’s Church on the Cape agreed to raise enough money for 20 nets and in addition to the dance, they will be hosting a spaghetti dinner in April. Merriam said the money raised will also go to education in sub-Saharan-Africa.
    The dance will be at Atlantic Hall Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. A $10 donation is being asked of every attendee, with free refreshments provided by youth at the church as well as music by the Chris Humphrey Big Band, a 15 piece group that will be playing both modern and classic swing and jazz tunes. Humphrey, a jazz piano teacher at the University of Southern Maine and director of music at Cheverus High School, is a member of the Church on the Cape and said he is enthused to be donating his time to “such a worthy cause.”
    “Everyone has the three Ts to donate: time, treasure or talent. I don’t have much time or treasure, so I donate what I can with my music,” he said.
    For more information about the dance call the Church on the Cape 967-5787. Tickets will be sold at the door.
    To contact Stowell P. Watters, call 282-4337 ext. 219 or email news@kennebunkpost.com.