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By: Susannah Rosenblatt

7th Grade Girl Makes Sending Nets Spooky

October 31 2012

Happy Halloween! Have we got a spooky story for you. When 12-year-old Courtney Bell first learned about Nothing But Nets in 2008, she couldn’t believe what she saw: kids around the world could get sick—or even die—from a simple mosquito bite.

“We really wanted to do something to help out,” she said, “One net makes a difference in someone’s life.”

So she decided to give malaria a real scare. 

Courtney and her older brother Tyler transformed their family’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey yard into a Haunted Trail for Halloween, complete with monsters, strobe lights, and zombies to freak neighborhood visitors out and raise money for Nothing But Nets!

This weekend was the Bell family’s fourth Haunted Trail, and the frightfest was better than ever. Hundreds came before Hurricane Sandy hit, and the Bells raised more than $1,200 in person and online to send nets and save lives. That’s more than 120 families in Africa who can sleep safely from malaria thanks to a life-saving bed net.

Courtney spends all year doing researching new tricks, like stretching out spiderwebs to make them look more realistic. The whole family helps build the Trail, wearing their Buzzkill T-shirts together!

She’s got great advice for anyone looking to spread the buzz about stopping malaria in a creative way: “If you want to make a difference, then have fun with it!” You can support the Bell family’s Scare for Nets here!

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