NY Jets' Kris Jenkins Lights Up Times Square For NYC Trees

Parks & Recreation this week launches a new MillionTreesNYC Public Service Announcement urging New Yorkers to plant and care for trees this fall. The PSA, which features 4-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Kris Jenkins of the New York Jets, will be displayed on Clear Channel’s “Spectacolor HD” digital billboard in Times Square at Broadway and 47th Street, Monday, October 25th through November 14th. The PSA runs once per hour.

MillionTreesNYC PSA with Kris Jenkins“New York City is in the midst of an ambitious undertaking: to plant one million trees by the year 2017,” said Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “Trees add beauty and shade to our city, as well as clean the air and make it easier to breathe. I’d like to thank Kris Jenkins of the NY Jets for joining MillionTreesNYC to spread the word about the importance of trees and for helping us cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards – New York City youth.”

MillionTreesNYC is a key component of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 sustainability vision to improve the city’s infrastructure to meet the needs of current and future generations. The goal of the MillionTreesNYC initiative is to add one million new trees to New York City’s urban forest by 2017. Trees clean the air, cool air temperatures, capture storm water which results in less flooding, and beautify neighborhoods. Since its launch in October 2007, nearly 400,000 young trees have been planted in public parks, natural areas and streets as well as private properties.

MillionTreesNYC is a public-private initiative, led jointly by the Parks Department and New York Restoration Project.

“We often take our surroundings for granted,” said Kris Jenkins, who donated his time to Parks to make the public service announcement. “I teamed up with Mayor Bloomberg for this campaign because we must be proactive about saving our environment. Planting a million trees in New York City is an obtainable goal that will positively impact all of us for decades to come."

As part of the MillionTreesNYC initiative, the City is educating New York City youth about the importance of trees so that they will protect and maintain our city's urban forest and environment, and perhaps be inspired to join training programs within the initiative for green jobs. The students featured in the PSA were summer camp students from the Hansborough, Manhattan (35 West 134th Street) and Brownsville, Brooklyn (1555 Linden Boulevard) recreation centers who learned about trees through Parks’ after-school and summer camp programs.

Clear Channel, a long-time supporter of NYC Parks initiatives and MillionTreesNYC, donated air time for the PSA for three weeks. In addition to Times Square, the PSA can be viewed on NYC life, the official television network of the City of New York, for the next six weeks.

The PSA was produced pro-bono by Charles Farrell and Kathleen Russell of Mickle and Muckle, Inc. The "the nana song" was written by Jon Neufeld and performed by jonka music.

View the PSA.