The Jerome Gun Hill Business Improvement District (BID), in partnership with Bronx Bound Books, play:groundNYC, PEN America, and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), will be hosting an Earth Day celebration on Friday, April 22, from 2.30 p.m. to  5.30 p.m. at the Jerome Gun Hill BID parklet space located at 3498 Jerome Avenue.

 

The BID will be distributing Earth Day giveaways to help shoppers and residents use less plastic straws and other plastics in their day-to-day lives, such as reusable bags, water bottles, and straws. Bronx Bound Books mobile library will be distributing free, new and gently-used books, featuring books by Bronx-based authors!

 

Governors Island-based group, play:groundNYC, will be hosting play-based activities using recycled materials. PEN America volunteer poets will be writing and distributing free poems.

 

The Jerome Gun Hill BID is one of seventy-six BIDs in New York City and one of eleven BIDs in the Bronx. The BID is a vibrant retail commercial district located in Norwood, and serves one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the city. Its catchment area includes Jerome Avenue (between Mosholu Parkway and East 212th Street) and East Gun Hill Road (between Jerome and Webster Avenues).

 

Since its inception in January 1997 the BID has been serving over 230 businesses that range in size from small retail shops to local and national food and retail chains and banks. The BID is managed by the Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), a support corporation of Montefiore Medical Center whose mission is to advance the health and wellbeing of communities that Montefiore serves through small business support, neighborhood development, quality housing and local news. In partnership with MPC, the BID provides supplemental sanitation, security, marketing, events, retail attraction and beautification in the community. For more information, visit: www.jeromegunhillbid.org or follow the group @jeromegunhillbid.

 

Bronx Bound Books, as featured on The Drew Barrymore Show, is a bookstore on wheels. Bronx Bound Books launched in May 2019 to promote book ownership, literacy, and access to books in every corner of The Bronx. Bronx Bound Books is leaving no community behind. It is a mobile bookstore that travels throughout the borough, especially to neighborhoods where it may be needed the most. As founder, Latanya Devaughn, says, “Every neighborhood in The Bronx deserves a bookstore, even if it’s just for one day.”

 

Non-profit organization, play:groundNYC, is dedicated to transforming the city through play. The group’s playworkers support children’s play at its adventure playground, The Yard, and through partnerships with community organizations in diverse neighborhoods across New York City. The organization is reimagining the urban environment as a place for all children to play, create and explore, regardless of demographic status. This is done by providing spaces for young people to play, providing professional development, school programming and training a new generation of “playworkers.” For more information, visit https://www.playground.nyc/mission.

 

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. The group champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Its mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Founded in 1922, PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 centers worldwide that make up the PEN International network. PEN America works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literature of others.

 

The group’s strength is its membership—a nationwide community of more than 7,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals, as well as devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America’s mission. PEN America is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and has chapters in seven regions. For more information, visit https://pen.org.

 

For more Earth Day, events, check out the attached fliers and click here and here if you would like to volunteer.