Georgia Straight's Tony Barnes accepts Band Aid Challenge to fight Ebola virus

Last week, I issued a challenge to three people to sing one of Bono's lines from the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

The first nominee, Georgia Straight sales and marketing manager Tony Barnes, has accepted, as you can see in the video above.

Rumour has it that another nominee, UBC president Arvind Gupta, might be honing his singing skills in preparation to follow suit.

As part of the Band Aid Challenge invented by humanitarian Bob Geldof, people around the world are being urged to belt out, "Tonight, we're reaching out and touching you."

After doing that, they're supposed to donate 10 British pounds (approximately CDN$18) to the Band Aid Charitable Trust and then nominate three others to do the same.

All proceeds go to help combat Ebola in West Africa.

I nominated Dr. Gupta because UBC has become an important global university in recent years.

Its School of Population and Public Heath has focused a great deal of attention on addressing the Ebola crisis.

The Global Heath Research Program at UBC has developed a World Health Organization manual on preparedness and response to the virus. UBC researchers also developed educational tools about Ebola in an African context.

For more on UBC's efforts, check out this website.

And after that, you can play the video below and hear Bono's line at the 1:52 mark.