On Monday, the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign will be honoring Iowa Opera Star Dr. Simon Estes with a Lifetime Impact Award. Dr. Estes is the first in Iowa, and one of only a few donors, to reach the $500,000 mark for the initiative that protects tens of thousands of lives from malaria. The award will presented in a special ceremony at the Iowa Culinary Institute on the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) Ankeny campus beginning at 11:15 a.m. To date, Nothing But Nets has raised $60 million and delivered over 10 million nets and other malaria interventions and treatments through its UN partners to protect refugees and vulnerable families. Since 2002, more than 6.8 million lives have been saved and child mortality rates have decreased 71 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.
