Dodgeball!

Nov 18th, 2009 11:00 AM UTC
By ONE Partners

Check out this post about a great opportunity for all you dodgeball fans out there:

The famous fictional dodgeball mastermind Patches O’Houlihan once said, “if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” I wonder if he also knew that if you can dodge a ball, you can save a life?

Actually, you don’t even need to be able to dodge a ball, though it’ll help. All you need to do is gather your friends and register at www.pnock.org to play in the first-ever Pnock-Out Pneumonia Dodgeball Tournament.

This week, the Best Shot Foundation announced the 16 cities that will host dodgeball tournaments from February through April. With the regions spanning from New England to the West Coast, university students everywhere will have the chance to participate. In each region, 32 teams will recruit players, raise donations, and collect signatures for the fight against pneumonia.

Legendary quarterback Steve Young is this year’s League Commissioner. As the face of the tournament, Mr. Young wants to encourage the thousands of pro-active and socially responsible students of America to mobilize their power for the fight against childhood pneumonia. The Pnock-Out Pneumonia Dodgeball Tournament is the first step in giving pneumonia the vital attention boost it needs by involving such an influential portion of the nation’s population.

Pneumonia devastates more than 2 million families each year. This disease takes more young lives than the measles, malaria, and HIV/AIDS combined. In fact, each year it kills more children under the age of five than any other disease. As a developed nation with access to functioning health systems and proper information, we overlook pneumonia. As a result, millions of children in the world’s poorest corners continue to perish unnecessarily.

“Unnecessary” because we have the medicine to save these children for less money than most of us spend on a haircut. The vaccine against the two deadliest strands of pneumonia costs approximately $20, and $8 will diagnose and treat a child suffering from the disease. Potentially, we can save a million children every year from dying of pneumonia. All we need is the leadership, dedication, and collaborative effort to ensure that children and their parents have access to these affordable, safe, and effective solutions.

The Pnock Out Pneumonia Dodgeball Tournament is a chance for young Americans to involve themselves in a growing movement to make childhood pneumonia a global priority. Plus, it’ll be a lot of fun. It’s a dodgeball tournament, after all. Between the infinite opportunities to quote Vince Vaughn and the chance to perfect your hurling technique, there’s really no excuse not to play. So grab your friends and “dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge” your way to saving lives!

You can sign up now at www.pnock.org.

TAGS: ONE, pneumonia