My Band Aid Challenge to Tony Barnes, Laura Moore, and Arvind Gupta to fight the Ebola virus

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      In my 20 years at the Georgia Straight, I've very rarely inflicted my singing voice on anyone.

      But when it comes to fighting Ebola, it's the least I could do for the people of West Africa.

      That's why I took up Bob Geldof's call to sing a line from Band Aid 30's recently recorded "Do They Know It's Christmas".

      The Band Aid Challenge involves belting out Bono's famous verse, "Tonight, we're reach out and touching you," and then contributing 10 British pounds (CDN$18.90) to the charity that Geldof created.

      Here's the catch.

      Whoever does this must nominate three other people to do the same.

      Yes, I know, it's a bit of a rip-off of the Ice Bucket Challenge. But who can argue with Geldof's efforts to alleviate a public-health crisis that's shattering the economic and cultural life of West Africa?

      I selected three people who all have good reason to take up the challenge.

      Tony Barnes is the sales and marketing manager at the Georgia Straight. Not only can he afford to cough up the money, he's also a thoroughly decent fellow.

      I once witnessed Tony pull over his vehicle to the side of the street so he could give money to a homeless person who was asleep on the sidewalk outside of Tim Hortons. Tony did this on his own not knowing that anyone saw him do this. It taught me something about how thoughtful he can be.

      The second nominee is Laura Moore, who's the Georgia Straight's arts category manager. She has a keen interest in humanitarian efforts in Africa, so I knew she could be counted on to make a contribution to this worthy cause.

      The third nominee is UBC president Arvind Gupta. He's heading an academic institution increasingly recognized for its global reach. By naming Dr. Gupta, I've given him an opportunity to reinforce this and set an example for the thousands of students, staff, and faculty at the Point Grey and Okanagan campuses.

      I'm looking forward to seeing their videos and hearing the names of the people that they're going to nominate to help stamp out Ebola.

      For inspiration, they can watch the video below to see how a pro does it.

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