NEW YORK, NY -- At 2:00 p.m. today, local area elementary school students will hand deliver over 700 colorful handmade posters from children around the world asking William B. Harrison, chief executive officer of JP Morgan Chase, to keep his promise and stop lending money to projects that destroy endangered forests and cause global warming. The second graders, from Fairfield, Connecticut, Mr. Harrison’s current home, will represent children from North America to Southeast Asia who participated in a poster contest calling on the world’s second largest bank to keep its commitment and live up to environmental standards set by Citigroup and Bank of America earlier this year.

Who
Local area second grade students
Michael Brune, executive director of Rainforest Action Network

What
Delivery of over 700 colorful posters handmade by children around the world

When
2:00 p.m. TODAY (Thursday, December 16, 2004)

Where
JP Morgan Chase World Headquarters
270 Park Avenue @ East 47th Street

Visuals
Larger-than-life colorful children’s posters with positive and powerful messages to JP Morgan Chase

The winning poster by a sixth grade student from Dayton, Ohio featured an inspiring watercolor of a rainforest bird with a handwritten message addressed to JP Morgan Chase reading “Be A Hero… …Save the Rainforest. Save the World. Please protect the rainforest instead of hurting the Earth for oil.” The student was recognized with a full-page color ad in today’s edition of The New York Sun above a caption reading “Thanks Allie. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.”

“Today, young rainforest heroes from around the world are reminding JP Morgan Chase that its most important stakeholders are future generations,” said Tracy Solum, director of Rainforests in the Classroom, a program of Rainforest Action Network. “This is education in action, and these are kids the Earth can count on. These posters represent the wisdom and creativity of a new generation inspired to protect the Earth.”

“Children around the world are asking JP Morgan Chase to invest in their future by doing its part to protect the world’s last remaining rainforests,” said Paula Healy, an elementary school teacher in Fairfield County, Connecticut. “Earth is on loan to us from future generations, and these students know the value of protecting their natural inheritance.”

JP Morgan Chase is the largest U.S.-based bank still operating without a comprehensive environmental policy.

Rainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through grassroots organizing, education and non-violent direct action.

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