Throughout the June 2 Weekend, Americans Will Gather at More than 250 Grassroots Events Honoring Gun Violence Survivors and Uniting Around the Idea that We Can End Gun Violence
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 — 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 third annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day, June 2, and events honoring gun violence survivors throughout the weekend. 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.
Details unveiled today include:
- Viacom and Univision Communications Inc. will be lending extensive support to the campaign, including airing a Wear Orange PSA in Times Square and Wear Orange features on Fusion, MTV and The Onion. More than 60 corporate brands in all will support Wear Orange—double the number in 2016—including Atria Books, ATTN:, Allure, Bad Robot, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Good Housekeeping, GOOP, InStyle, Legal Sea Foods, Marie Claire, Penguin, Pitchfork Music Festival, Redbook, Seventeen, Tumblr, Vans Warped Tour and Woman’s Day.
- Teen Vogue will announce the winners of its Wear Orange creative writing contest on June 2. The guest judge was Jodi Picoult of the Everytown Authors Council, which launched in May. Vogue is publishing a series of essays from survivors of gun safety in the days leading up to June 2, National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
- Cynthia Rowley, Zac Posen, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) will lead the fashion world’s embrace of Wear Orange. Brands like Sassy Lips, Vapour Beauty and The Maryn created special edition products for the campaign. Additional details on how the leading voices of fashion are engaged in the Wear Orange campaign are available here.
- Cultural influencers who will #WearOrange on June 2 include JJ Abrams, Mario Batali, Troian Bellisario, Andrew Bird, Michael Bloomberg, Lorraine Bracco, Ty Burrell, Roseanne Cash, Laura Dern, Billy Eichner, Ian Harding, Melissa Joan Hart, Perez Hilton, Ron Howard, Indigo Girls, Jenni Konner, Yves Mathieu, Audra McDonald, Katie McGrath, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julianne Moore, Natalie Morales, Denis O’Hare, June Diane Raphael, Alysia Reiner, Spoon, Paul Scheer, Amy Schumer, Adam and Naomi Scott, Kim Kardashian West and Rachel Zoe.
- The sports world’s support of Wear Orange is led by the San Francisco Giants, who lit AT&T Field up orange for their last home game before June 2, and shared the Can You See Me Now? video with fans in the stadium. Football great Emmitt Smith will join the campaign this year. The Superdome, Miller Park – home of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Milwaukee Bucks – and the Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment Complex will all turn orange in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange.
- More than 80 members of the Everytown Authors Council have signed on to #WearOrange, including best-selling authors Jodi Picoult, Chris Bohjalian, Justina Chen, Susan Orlean, Lev Grossman and Meg Wolitzer. Sixty-six are also raffling off autographed books to fans who participate in Wear Orange on June 2. Cartoonists, including Ruben Bolling (“Tom the Dancing Bug”), will also contribute a cartoon panel in support of Wear Orange.
- As a result of strong grassroots outreach, skylines and key buildings nationwide will begin turning orange tomorrow, 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 chair Julianne Moore. More than 150 buildings and monuments nationwide are confirmed to light orange this week, including major sites such as Niagara Falls, the TD Garden in Boston, LA City Hall, NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte and Miller Park in Milwaukee. A full list of landmarks can be found here.
- More than 150 non-profit partners are on board to Wear Orange on June 2 including the National Urban League, Ultraviolet, Organizing for America and American Federation of Teachers. A full list of current partners can be found here.
- And more than 160 Mayors in 30 states have already agreed to participate in the Wear Orange campaign. Some of the participants include Mayor Sly James (Kansas City, MO), Mayor Mike Rawlings (Dallas, TX), and Mayor Kasim Reed (Atlanta, GA). A full list of cities can be found here.
- The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate both introduced resolutions recognizing June 2 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day and June as National Gun Violence Awareness Month.
- In collaboration with the NYC-based nonprofit organization, Art Start, and prominent New York City street artist Danielle Mastrion, the first-ever Wear Orange street art mural was created. Art Start works with youth in underserved communities by offering creative workshops at homeless shelters, alternative-to-incarceration programs, and partnering with youth agencies. The teens who helped to paint the mural, located in Coney Island, also created a song and a music video that specifically relates to gun violence and the theme for Wear Orange 2017, Can You See Me Now?
Spearheaded by volunteers and supporters who are part of the Wear Orange campaign, nearly 250 events to honor National Gun Violence Awareness Day will happen all over the country the weekend of June 2. Marquee events are happening in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, Orlando, Indianapolis and San Francisco. This is the first year that there will be an event in every state. 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 throughout the weekend by following the #WearOrange hashtag.
In the years 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 more than 100 “Orange Walks” to help amplify the gun safety movement. Since then the Wear Orange movement has grown exponentially. On June 2, hundreds of thousands of Americans will stand up once more to say that we must do more to end gun violence.
Full details on Wear Orange 2017 are available here.