By KATE WILLSON
Observer staff
April 9, 2008

They’ve petitioned the state of Georgia to grant a convicted murderer a new trial, hyped the opening of a new District restaurant and promoted donations for a non-profit shelter for terminally ill homeless men and women.

Four years of private college should prepare last-term seniors to handle a real client.

That’s the hypotheses with which American University Professor Gemma Puglisi launched an interactive public relations class in 2004.

Last week her class held a press conference to expose student groups to “Nothing But Nets” – the class’s latest client. The conference doubled as a lesson in effective advertising. The United Nations-aligned nonprofit gives insecticide-treated mosquito nets to poor African families in an attempt to reduce the 500 million people infected with malaria each year on the continent.

Decked out in T-shirts with “Buzzkill” written across them, and branded orange sweatbands, the student team handed out “college cool kits” filled with everything a school group would need to launch their own Buzzkill campaign: fundraiser ideas, a guide to promoting the events, a planning checklist and a CD with poster templates.

“It’s an amazing semester,” Puglisi said. “I want them to feel like they’re making a difference.”

And they do, said senior Raiza Castro.

“I love putting all this together, actually getting the message out there,” she said. “And in this class, I actually have something to put in my portfolio.”

In addition to a press conference, the students are hosting a net-games day at the American University quad, a bar-night fundraiser in Adams Morgan and a movie night in the dorms.

But it was during the Thursday press conference that they also got a lesson in effective public relations, when they turned over the reigns to Elizabeth Gore, the executive director of Partnership Alliances at the U.N. Foundation – the organization sponsoring the Nothing But Nets campaign.

Gore pitched an interactive game on the Nothing But Nets Web site in which players can deliver a net for free until Malaria Awareness Day on April 25.

She shared a few shocking facts with the room – mostly filled with public relations students who helped host the press conference. Consider these:

• Malaria kills between 1 million and 3 million people every year in Africa.
• 75 percent of those are children younger than 5.
• Malaria costs African countries $12 billion a year.

Many don’t know – even many Africans suffering from infection – that Malaria is a parasite carried by a female mosquito that only bites at night. Prevention is easy - use an insecticide-treated net at night, keep grass cut short and clear away stagnant water. Testing is also increasingly simple and portable –a drop of iodine on a blood sample. Treatment is cheap and effective – only three pills.

In fact, Gore said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was created because of a Malaria outbreak in the United States. Nothing But Nets set a goal to provide 300 million nets to African families. Recently it handed out 2.1 nets to Malian families in 10 days.

A 7-year-old started her own campaign here in the United States; so has an NBA star and a Methodist bishop.

The Thursday press conference was the class’s first public event. They encouraged students to get in on some other events planned this month:

• April 23 – Drink in the goodwill at the Bar Fundraiser - 10 p.m. at the Angry Inch, 2450 18th St. N.W. in Adams Morgan.
• April 25 – Acknowledge Malaria Awareness Day on the American University Quad – complete with badminton and other net games, radio station 99.5 and sponsored by Vitawater.
• April 27 – Join students for a documentary on the disease – 6 p.m. in Ward 1 at American University.

For more information on the events, or to get a kit on how to put together your own campaign, contact Puglisi at puglisi@american.edu.