Want to help fight the spread of infectious disease? It’s as easy as buying basketball tickets.

Chip Away Malaria, a campus fundraising group, will sell $40 Detroit Pistons tickets for $20. From each ticket sold, $10 will go toward malaria relief.

The group has worked with the Pistons for about six months trying to formulate ideas to help support each other.

“(The Pistons are) getting attention and filling up the stands,” said Gregory Adamson, Mount Pleasant graduate assistant and a board director for Chip Away Malaria.

“As we sell tickets, we’re raising money for a cause,” said Ryan Lambert, Illinois graduate student and a board director for Chip Away Malaria.

Started in 2006, Chip Away Malaria is an initiative started by undergraduate students in Physical Education faculty member Vincent Mumford’s sport management classes.

This year, the group hopes to sell at least 250 tickets, which would raise $2,500. Their top goal is to sell 500 tickets.

“If we sell 500, the Pistons will donate $1,000 and we’ll have raised $5,000 ourselves,” Lambert said.

Chip Away Malaria plans to give the money to a foundation called Nothing But Nets during halftime of a Pistons game on April 13.

With this donation, Nothing But Nets will buy insecticide-treated bed nets that create a protective barrier around a person’s bed. The net helps protect the person while they are sleeping from insects that carry malaria.

“Every dollar goes toward that net purchase,” said Scott George, Canton graduate assistant and a board director for Chip Away Malaria.

To donate and order discounted tickets or get involved with Chip Away Malaria, visit chipawaymalaria.org.

It meets Monday nights at 9:30 p.m. in the Health Professions Building Room 2301.

Contact Chip Away Malaria at 989-774-2316 or info@chipawaymalaria.org with any questions.

Available Games

Discounted tickets are available for each of the following Detroit Pistons games:

- Feb. 4 vs. Miami
- Feb. 17 vs. Milwaukee
- Mar. 15 vs. Memphis
- April 13 vs. Chicago

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E-mail the author: Jessica Kloeckner