My name is Nate Beaird, and I’m from Des Moines, IA. This year I’m turning 30, so I wanted to find a cause to get behind and do something different for my birthday this year.  I made a video and posted it on the Facebook and Twitter accounts I set up.  The video laid out my birthday wish, and directed them to my website, HappyBirthdayNate.com, where they can donate to World Vision as part of my project.  2,000 people (mostly children under the age of 5) die every DAY from Malaria, a completely preventable disease.  Treated Mosquito nets can last up to 4 years, are washable, and can protect 2 children at a time.  When 80% of a certain community uses these nets, the cases of Malaria drop by 50% in the first year.  Although we’ve eradicated it here in the states, still over half the wold’s population is at risk.  World Vision is on a mission to eradicating it by 2015.
There’s two parts of my birthday wish;

• I want to raise $300,000 to purchase 50,000 treated Mosquito nets to protect 100,000 lives from Malaria.
• But I also want to find 10,000 people to be generous with their resources, generosity impacts both the giver and the receiver in incredible ways.

My birthday wish has spread all around the country, 30 of our 50 states have participated in donating for my birthday.  It’s also gone world-wide, with 14 countries participating.  The local TV News station has done a story on it as well as the local newspaper, not to mention blogs.  So far 174+ people have donated $23,301 which will buy 3,884 nets and protect 7,768 lives!

I’m not a World Vision employee, I’m not a missionary,  just a guy trying to encourage generosity in people while working to eradicate the largest human killing disease of all time.

Thank you so much for your time!

Nate Beaird
Birthday Boy