Declan Walsh, 6, leads charge for 'Spread the Net'

Most children like to shy away from the principal's office — but a six-year-old at MacDonald Drive Elementary in St. John's reached out to his teachers to help children suffering from Malaria.

Declan Walsh, 6, told The St. John's Morning Show Thursday he was inspired to get students on board with the 'Spread the Net' challenge after watching Rick Mercer on television.

Mercer and Plan Canada, a charity which promotes children's rights, are encouraging student groups to fundraise to purchase bed nets for children in Africa.

The nets protect against malaria-carrying mosquitoes. According to the World Health Organization, mostly children under the age of five accounted for most malaria deaths in Africa.

Walsh asked his principal last fall for the school to take part in the challenge.

"I got interested and now my school is doing it," Walsh said. 

"We raised a lot of money so far, we just started in September."

Kristin Walsh, Declan's mother, said her son was excited when he saw the project on The Rick Mercer Report.

"We travel quite a bit and we've stayed in places where we've used bed nets. Now some of those places, he's been fairly young when we've done it, but we talked about the places that we visited," she said.

On Tuesday, the school has organized a 'hat day' to collect money for the initiative.