Bill Gates, Boy Scouts and Malaria.

Gotcha reading now, right?

Yesterday was the national launch in Detroit of the partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America, the UN and Nothing But Nets-a global campaign to provide $10 mosquito nets to families in Africa to stop the spread of malaria. It's an interesting combination of philanthropic groups, to say the least.

I must admit that truly, the reason I took the boys to this event yesterday (besides it being free) was to meet Bill Gates and a promised "un-named Pistons star". Also, the Chief Scout Executive was to be there, and they promised food and games for the boys. Plus, I figured the kids would get a patch out of the deal (which they did).

The short story is that it was Bill Gates Sr-his FATHER-at the event, it was rookie Devon Washington at the event-he hasn't even played in a Pistons uniform, the Executive Scout wasn't there due to illness & he sent his ass't in his place, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing read a fairly lengthy Proclamation and they didn't have cups for pop to go along with the Pizza Papalis pizza.

Turns out that Devon Washington was a Scout growing up, Bill Gates SR is an Eagle Scout, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing (in addition to being a Pistons' alumni) was a Scout growing up in DC and the cups for the pop finally arrived.

All three of us learned some interesting things about malaria-it kills 2 chidren under age 5 every minute, it affects 500 million people every year, only the female mosquito bites, and $10 will buy a net to protect an entire family for up to 5 years from this vaccine-less disease.

Pizza kept all the Scouts quiet & contained while waiting for the program to begin.










Detroit Mayor Dave Bing was eloquent as always.










Mr. Bill Gates Sr. addresses the Scouts.
















A little blurry, but here's Devon waiting to take Brett out onto the court to shoot some hoops. Devon commented on Bryce's cuteness as Bryce ran around the outline of the key. Devon seems like a nice kid. We'll be watching him this Fall for sure.