Rick Mercer visits Holy Names

By Grace Bauer

Students, teachers and visitors gathered in the gym at Holy Names Catholic High School after March break to welcome one of Canada’s famous icons Rick Mercer.

The Rick Mercer Report has been running for over 14 years and after many successful years, CBC will soon be recording its final episode of the show, making this one of the last schools Mercer ever visits.

Each season, Mercer holds a competition called Spread The Net Challenge where schools across Canada raise money for insect nets to help countries suffering from Malaria. Holy Names raised one of the largest amounts with over $2,500 for the cause and are still continuing to raise funds.

The visit took place March 26, but Angela Hormiz, one of two students at Holy Names in charge of fundraising, said they have been working on this project for months.

“There are many ways we’ve raised the funds and are still working on raising more,” said Hormiz. “We did a can drive and gave students different incentives. Like, if they brought in 10 dollars one day they can have an exam dress-down day and everyone was really into that.”

Mercer said he wants to spread awareness of this disease plaguing many countries and hopes the competition will do just that.

Mercer posted a comment on his website that said, “Visiting the schools in the Spread the Net Student Challenge is always the highlight of my year. Trust me, if you are remotely pessimistic about anything at all, that is the cure. Just try to remain a glass half empty guy when you roll into a town like Peterborough, Ontario; you meet a young woman in grade eleven who donated her entire paycheck from Red Lobster to Spread the Net.”

For more information, you can visit the organization’s website at plancanada.ca/spread-the-net.