FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Trust for Public Land and New York Road Runners Announce Partnership to
Build New York City School Community Green Playgrounds
Four-Time Olympian Meb Keflezighi Joins Nonprofit Leaders to Announce
Initial $1 Million NYRR Contribution to Fund Construction of
Student-Designed School Playgrounds in Manhattan, Queens, and The Bronx
New York-The Trust for Public Land and New York Road Runners today
announced a new partnership to fund the transformation of New York City
public school playgrounds into state-of-the-art, green, community
playgrounds. The nonprofit organizations announced their partnership at CS
154 in Harlem, one of three sites where construction on new playgrounds
will soon begin.
"If a cracked asphalt slab is a playground, then I am Meb Keflezighi,"
joked Adrian Benepe, Senior Vice President and Director of City Park
Development for The Trust for Public Land, who also served as New York City
Park Commissioner under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "Our children deserve
playgrounds with trees, fields, and plants, so they can run, play, and be
active. Our cities need this green infrastructure, also. It makes our
neighborhoods more livable, helps clean the water and air, and improves
resilience to major storms, by capturing storm water instead of funneling
it into streets and down storm drains," Benepe added.
"New York Road Runners is thrilled to launch this partnership with the
Trust for Public Land and we look forward to building many new playgrounds
that students in our free NYRR Mighty Milers program, as well as children
from the surrounding community, can enjoy for years to come," said Michael
Capiraso, NYRR President and CEO. "Every child deserves the opportunity to
play and run in safe, fun and highly functional community environments."
More than 215,000 students are served nationally through NYRR's free youth
running programs and events, including 115,000 in New York City's five
boroughs. NYRR supports free community programming for people of all
ages-from kids to seniors-designed to get them moving toward a healthier
lifestyle, including NYRR Open Runs, a community-based initiative that
brings free weekly runs and walks to local neighborhood parks in New York
City, NYRR Striders, a free, weekly walking program for older runners, high
school training programs, group training sessions, and more.
"We are excited to partner with The Trust for Public Land and pursue our
common goal of making New York better today, in order to promise a better
tomorrow," said Peter Ciaccia, president of events for New York Road
Runners and race director of the TCS New York City Marathon. "While runners
from across the globe can race the TCS New York City Marathon through the
city's streets once a year, these playgrounds will let kids stay active in
their own backyard 365 days a year."
To launch the partnership, New York Road Runners contributed an initial $1
million to help fund the design and construction of playgrounds at three
school campuses: CS 154 (Harlem), PS 120 (Flushing, Queens), and the
Piagentini and Jones Educational Complex, which houses three schools on a
shared campus in the Throgs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx (PS 392, IS 467,
and IS 371).
These three initial projects will be completed by the end of 2017.
Ultimately, NYRR is planning on funding playground development in all five
boroughs over the next few years.
The new playgrounds will replace dilapidated, arid blacktop that currently
provides students' only opportunity to play outdoors on school grounds.
The new playgrounds were designed through a participatory design process
led by students themselves. At each participating school, students survey
their peers as part of a class project to learn the most popular playground
features. Students then work with landscape architects to integrate the
student wish list into the final design. The participatory design process
teaches many valuable skills, including environmental science, budgeting,
and negotiation.
The playground at CS 154 will have a "Night and Day" theme that
incorporates many student-developed design elements, including an image of
families dancing the night away in the shadow of the nearby Apollo Theater.
Additionally, the three playgrounds include green infrastructure elements,
such as specialized plantings and shade trees, porous pavement and
permeable pavers. Also included in the construction is a new synthetic turf
field made of woven polyester filaments and featuring a broken stone
storage layer and perforated distribution pipes to promote infiltration.
Such green infrastructure design elements are a hallmark of The Trust for
Public Land's playground work. These features reduce storm runoff that can
flood streets and overwhelm sewer systems, allowing untreated water to end
up in rivers and bays. Each playground absorbs hundreds of thousands of
gallons of water annually and includes 20-30 new trees that bring shade and
better air quality to their neighborhoods. The Trust for Public Lands
receives public funding from the Departments of Education and Environmental
Protection, the School Construction Authority, the City Council and the
Manhattan Borough President, the Queens Borough President and the Bronx
Borough President.
"Perhaps a future marathon champion will be touched by this donation from
New York Road Runners, but that is not the goal. What's most important is
that all children have the opportunity to develop an active and healthy
lifestyle. This will surely benefit the children, families and our
communities," said Meb Keflezighi, winner of the 2009 New York City
Marathon.
The Trust for Public Land has helped develop 189 playgrounds in New York
City. In addition to serving students, all playgrounds in New York City are
open to the public on weekends and after school hours, providing
opportunities for both children and adults to be physically active. Nearly
3.3 million New Yorkers live within a ten minute walk of one of TPL's
playgrounds.
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