Melinda & Brabs

This weekend, I had the huge pleasure of traveling to Road Atlanta with American Idol alum—and Malaria No More supporter extraordinaire—Melinda Doolittle. Melinda was on hand to cheer the Patron Highcroft Race team and support their Miles To End Malaria program. During Saturday’s race, the team crossed the $50,000 fundraising mark and are still accepting donations at MilesToEndMalaria.org as they get ready for the last race of the season on October 10th in California.

The weekend was packed-full with drama. First, Highcroft suffered a crash during a practice run on Thursday. Luckily, no one was hurt and the team rebuilt the car, from the ground up, in 24 hours. The team effort was astounding!

Melinda joined us on Saturday morning to sing the national anthem (beautifully) and wave the green flag to signal the start of the race. We then slipped into fire suits and joined the team in the pit lane—an amazing experience.

To cap it off, Patron Highcroft Racing earned enough championship points to stay at the top of the leader board heading into the last race of the ALMS season.

Vote for your favorite American Le Mans Series star for the annual “From the Fans” award! There are five people up for consideration for “who made the biggest impact this year?” award and one of them is Patron Highcroft Racing’s own Duncan Dayton!

Duncan is not only the owner of the first-place team, he is also one of the driving forces (pun absolutely intended) behind the Miles To End Malaria campaign. The program has raised nearly $50,000 to fight malaria in Africa, saving lives with every lap around the track!

Duncan is making impact both on and off the grid—if there were a “From the Humanitarians” award, he’d be a shoo-in! Help us give Duncan the recognition he deserves and vote today. You can also vote for favorite driver—both Scott Sharp and David Brabham have been nominated. We can’t choose between these two great guys…they’re both favorites of Malaria No More’s!

Miles To End Malaria can put another notch on their victory belt! Last night, we attended a homecoming party for our friends on the Patrón Highcroft Racing team. At the party, Dr. Panoz, Founder of the American Le Mans Series, announced his plans to pledge $5 for every lap (or mile) raced in this year’s series, on top of the combined $10 per mile pledge from Highcroft Racing and Patrón Tequila. That’s a total of $15 per mile. And there are about 4,500 miles raced in an entire series. $15 x 4,500 miles = $67,00 OR 6,750 African lives saved this series!

Show your support for the Patrón Highcroft Racing team on Saturday, July 18 at Lime Rock racetrack in Lakeville, Connecticut. At the track, you can join the race by pledging as little as one penny per raced mile. It just takes good common cents to save a life!

It’s #FollowFriday on Twitter: @malarianomore, @malariapolicy, @patronhighcroft

MNM's Peter Chernin & Scott Case; Highcroft's David Brabham

The stars were out in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night at the BritWeek Gala to benefit Malaria No More.  Former British Prime Minister and guest speaker Tony Blair, Ryan Seacrest and Malaria No More Chairman Peter Chernin inspired guests with accounts of their own personal connection to the fight against malaria and a performance by Daughtry ended the evening on a high note.  Malaria No More was joined at the event by the Patron Highcroft race team, fresh off the American Le Mans circuit, who brought the car along to show how they are using Miles To End Malaria. The event was a great success, raising more than $1 million to support Malaria No More’s efforts to end malaria deaths!

Missed the event?  You can still be a part of the celebrity action with our online auction, featuring a chance to meet Kiefer Sutherland, tickets to the 2009 Teen Choice awards, tickets to the American Idol Season Eight Finale and more!  But hurry up and place your bids – the auction ends on April 28th!

Kelly Mahoney is Development Officer at Malaria No More. She likes the LA life—fast cars, rock stars…and England?

Patron Highcroft Racing is zooming around the track at the Long Beach Grand Prix…and Malaria No More is cheering them on!

Patron Highcroft Racing has been following the Twitter war as they lead the Miles To End Malaria program. Doing everything in their power to raise awareness—and to thank other grassroots efforts to fight malaria—Highcroft put a sticker in the inside of their cockpit: “thanks @aplusk; milestoendmalaria.org”

Tune in on Sunday at 9:30 PT on ABC to watch the race and catch a glimpe of the shout-out.

Follow Patron Highcroft Racing on Twitter: @patronhighcroft

Patron Highcroft Racing drivers Scott Sharp and David Brabham are revving the engine for their race today at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Scott and David are hoping to build on their first-place victory at the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg earlier this month and are raising awareness for malaria through the Miles To End Malaria program.

They’re working to send mosquito nets to Africa…and as you can tell from the picture, they’ve got their eye on the prize. To give a shout-out to everyone else who is helping fight malaria, Patron Highcroft Racing is including a sticker thanking the Twitter community in their cockpit camera for the race so be sure to keep an eye out for it!

Cheer Scott and David on as they help save lives with every mile they race today—and be sure to catch the race tomorrow (Sunday) on ABC at 9:30am PT and watch them win for malaria at MilesToEndMalaria.org.

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a race-car driver? Or a life-saving hero? Well now you can realize both childhood dreams-by bidding on a chance to be an honorary crew member of the Patrón Highcroft American Le Mans Car Racing Team for the Monterey Sports Car Championships or visiting the set to be part of the action on Fox NFL Sunday. All proceeds from the online auction will go towards Malaria No More’s goal to cover every person at risk of malaria in Africa with a mosquito net by 2010 as a first step toward ending deaths from malaria in Africa by 2015.

Die-hard American Idol fans can hope to attend the finale show, while “Dancing with the Stars” fans can cheer on their favorite “twinkle-toed” celebs at the final round – while helping Malaria No More save lives.

Hurry and place your bids before the auction ends!

Malaria No More is teaming up with Patrón Highcroft Racing for Miles to End Malaria to raise funds and awareness for the race to save lives from malaria throughout the 2009 American Le Mans Season.

Patrón Highcroft Racing is kicking off the fundraising efforts by donating five dollars for every mile the team completes in the 2009 race season—approximately 4,500 miles—to Malaria No More.  That contribution will be matched by the team’s sponsor, Tequila Patrón, for a starting point of $10 per mile.

That’s a bed net for every mile—and race fans from across the country can be part of the team! Fans can pledge as little as one penny per mile and watch the team’s progress on the track turn into lives saved. Malaria No More will use all donations to send mosquito nets to families in need in Africa.

Adding to the cool factor, Patrón Highcroft Racing has put the Malaria No More logo on its brand new Acura ARX-02a racecar.

The program officially launches this Friday, as the team prepares for its first race of the season, the Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday, March 21^st. Learn more about Miles to End Malaria at www.MilesToEndMalaria.org.