The Rens, NYC Youth Basketball Team Affected by Gun Violence, to Shoot Hoops on White House Basketball Court While Wearing Orange
More than 500 Partners, Influencers, Landmarks and Elected Officials Already Confirmed to Wear Orange on June 2 in Support of an America Free from Gun Violence; “Wear Orange” Campaign Inspired by Chicago Teens Who Refused to Be Silent in the Face of Daily Gun Violence
NEW YORK CITY—The Wear Orange campaign (www.WearOrange.org) today announced that more than 500 influencers, corporations, non-profit partner organizations, elected officials and a series of iconic landmarks will be participating in the second annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day tomorrow, June 2. Wear Orange was inspired by friends of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago high school student killed by gunfire, who decided to honor her life by wearing orange – the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others.
New details unveiled today include:
- A youth basketball league, “The Rens”—which started as the New Renaissance Basketball Association—started wearing orange patches last fall after two players were badly hurt by gunfire and two others were accused of having fired guns. Since then, they have inspired more than 300 basketball teams nationwide to adopt the orange patch. As part of the Wear Orange campaign, The Rens will rock their orange patches as they shoot hoops on the White House basketball court with White House staff for National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 2.
- ATTN, Bloomberg LP, Dame Magazine, GLAM4GOOD, iHeartRadio, Motown Records, OkayPlayer, OkayAfrica, Refinery29, Teen Vogue, Tumblr and Zac Posen joined previously announced Wear Orange 2016 corporate supporters including Kenneth Cole, Univision, Viacom, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Marie Claire, Women’s Health and Bad Robot.
- Mario Batali, Michael Bloomberg, David Alan Basche, Lee Daniels, Laura Dern, Chelsea Handler, Ian Harding, Richard Marx, Debra Messing, Alyssa Milano, Joakim Noah, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Brooke Shields, Tim Simons, Spoon, Justin Theroux and Rachel Zoe are among the new additions to join previously revealed cultural influencers who will #WearOrange on June 2, including J.J. Abrams, Anti-Flag, Bob Balaban, Troian Bellisario, Andrew Bird, Rosanne Cash, Amber Coffman, Rachel Dratch, Jason George, Melissa Joan Hart, Perez Hilton, Spike Lee, Julianne Moore, Natalie Morales, Don Most, Denis O’Hare, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, Russell Simmons, Gloria Steinem, Michael Stipe, Kristina Wong and Sasheer Zamata.
- Award-winning cartoonists Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”), Dana Simpson (“Phoebe and Her Unicorn”), Lincoln Peirce (“Big Nate”), Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott (“Baby Blues”) and Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman (“Zits) contributed panels of their iconic character creations wearing orange, which will be shared on Everytown social media channels. Award-winning cartoonist Ruben Bolling (“Tom the Dancing Bug”), who also contributed a cartoon panel, organized the project for June 2.
- More than 50 authors have signed on to Wear Orange, including best-selling authors Alexander Chee, Gayle Forman, Caroline Leavitt and Sarah McCoy.
- As a result of strong grassroots outreach, skylines and key buildings nationwide will begin turning orange today, June 1 – the start of Gun Violence Awareness Month – including the Empire State Building, which will host a lighting ceremony led by Everytown Creative Council member Spike Lee today. More than 125 buildings and monuments nationwide are confirmed to light orange this week, including new additions such as Niagara Falls, the TD Garden in Boston, LA City Hall, NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, Miller Park in Milwaukee and all five borough president offices in New York City. A full list of landmarks can be found here.
- More than 100 non-profit partners are on board to Wear Orange on June 2 including new additions this year like Do Something, Doctors for America and Rock The Vote. A full list of current partners can be found here.
- And more than 160 Mayors in 32 states have already agreed to participate in the Wear Orange campaign. Some of the new participants include Mayor Landrieu (New Orleans), Mayor Turner (Houston) and First Selectman Llodra (Newtown). A full list of mayors can be found here.
Spearheaded by volunteers and supporters, nearly 200 events to celebrate National Gun Violence Awareness Day, coined Orange meet-ups, will happen all over the country on Thursday, June 2. The Chicago Party for Peace, the centerpiece event, is one of a series of marquee events happening in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Memphis, Minneapolis, New Orleans and San Francisco. These events will bring people together to showcase the full creativity of Orange supporters from concerts to picnics in the park to Orange Walks to meeting at local landmarks as they turn orange. All events are searchable via an online map (available here) and easy to track on June 2 by following the #WearOrange hashtag.
In the months since the launch of Wear Orange and the first-ever National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 2, 2015, the effort has reached millions of Americans. On December 14, 2015, as part of the commemoration of the three-year mark since the Sandy Hook shooting and in response to the San Bernardino shooting, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, hosted “Orange Walks” to help amplify the gun safety movement. The Orange Walks, which took place in more than 100 cities nationwide, were the biggest offline event in the organization to date. Additionally, orange carpets replaced the traditional red carpet at Spike Lee’s New York City premiere of Chi-Raq and at the Sundance Film Festival’s debut of Katie Couric’s documentary Under the Gun.
Previously announced details available here.