No, I’m not talking about the kid… though some days it might feel that way!

I’m talking about a creature that’s responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths each and every year – the mosquito!

While it might simply be more of a nuisance than a deadly killer here in Canada, around the world they account for more deaths than snakes, sharks, bears or crocodiles. But there’s a simple solution to stopping their deadly malaria-spreading infection – bed nets.

As part of an education/awareness campaign, Plan Canada is bringing its annual Spread The Net campaign to the Toronto Eaton Centre in a unique display to educate, motivate and inspire Canadians to raise awareness and funds for malaria-preventing bed nets in Africa.

Since 2007, Spread the Net has protected the lives of more than 7.2 million people including children and pregnant women and delivered more than 2.5 million malaria-preventing bed nets to families in Africa.

Canadians can help. For a donation of $10 to Plan’s Spread the Net campaign, one bed net can protect 2 people for up to 3 years. Thousands of lives could be saved every year if all children under the age of five in Africa slept under a bed net.

If you’re in the downtown Toronto area on Friday June 5, stop by the Eaton Centre from 10am-9pm to catch a glimpse of a wall of live mosquitoes and learn more about how you can help stop the spread of malaria.

When I asked my little guy if he wanted to go see a whole bunch of bugs, he replied, “Can I stomp on them?” While we can’t stomp every mosquito, through efforts like Spread The Net we can help stomp out the spread of malaria.

See you there!