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A newly announced event should bring 11K+ students and educators, plus 200 buses, to Barclays Center on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 26

Unmentioned in the Barclays Center September 2018 events calendar circulated to neighbors, a newly announced (if not booked) event should fill many seats in the arena on the morning of Wednesday, 9/26/18.

According to the announcement (in full at bottom):
WE Day, an unparalleled youth empowerment event, returns to New York to celebrate 19,000 youth and educators from across the Tri-State area for the second annual WE Day UN on September 26, 2018 at Barclays Center. Taking place during the conclusion of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), WE Day UN is held in partnership with UNAIDS and UN Global Compact and other UN agencies. WE Day UN will celebrate the year-round local and global acts of service taken by thousands of students from across the region.
WE Day UN will stream live at 10:10 a.m. ET on September 26, 2018 at we.org/watchweday. But the attendees will start arrive by 7 am, as noted below.

This is volunteerism backed by some serious corporate money, including Allstate Foundation Good Starts Young, Unilever, Walgreens and Microsoft.

Students in attendance can't buy tickets but must be invited after "taking action on one local and one global cause of their choice." A press release with talking points says that the event will be "bringing together 18,000 students and educators from more than 400 schools."

Barclays not expecting that many

Arena spokeswoman Mandy Gutmann, in response to my query, said the expected attendance is between 11,000 and 12,000. (She also said the omission from the monthly schedule wasn't intentional.)

Some schools will be using public transit. The arena is expecting approximately 200 buses beginning at 7 am, with drop-off on both Atlantic and Flatbush venues. (Note that an event drawing some 13,000 in 2015, with 270 buses, caused major blockage of streets around the arena, in part because the buses did not go offsite.)

All buses will have an offsite parking requirement that is going to be communicated in advance and onsite as well to reinforce the message, Guttman said. The NYPD is coordinating with the arena.

The event ends at 2:15 pm. There will be a staggered pick up schedule, with bus pick-up starting after the arena ending, through 3:30 pm.

WE Day Barclays Center Press Release, Sept. 26, 2018 by Norman Oder on Scribd



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