JetBlue Airways and KaBOOM! Fly to the Caribbean to Build Community Playground in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq: JBLU) today is proud to announce a partnership with Apoyo Empresarial para la Peninsula de Cantera and KaBOOM! to build a playground in San Juan, Puerto Rico, reaffirming its commitment to the community. JetBlue and long-standing partner KaBOOM! have worked together over the last seven years to build playgrounds for children across the airline's network.  This will be the 13th playground built through the partnership and the first in Puerto Rico.

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"During the last decade, San Juan has become an integral part of our route network, and we remain committed to serving our customers and the 300 JetBlue crewmembers who call the Commonwealth their home," said JetBlue's Director Corporate Responsibility Icema Gibbs. "As Puerto Rico's largest carrier, we can't think of a better way to strengthen our commitment to the community and city of San Juan than to link up with our charitable partners at KaBOOM! to create a safe space for our kids to play."

"KaBOOM! is thrilled to expand our tremendous work with our National Partner, JetBlue, to Puerto Rico," said KaBOOM! Founder and CEO Darell Hammond. "Every child deserves to have a great place to play and we made that possible for children in San Juan, while bringing KaBOOM! one step closer to our vision of a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America."

"The team and volunteers of the Proyecto Peninsula de Cantera reaffirm our commitment to the children of the community, who deserve a safe place to have fun and develop," said Maria L. Rivera Grajales, Executive Director Proyecto Peninsula de Cantera. "We feel thankful with JetBlue and KaBOOM! for making this playground come true."

As a funding partner, JetBlue volunteers and community residents will work side–by-side to create a new playground for the children of the Cantera Peninsula.  This will be JetBlue's first playground built outside of the mainland U.S. and in the Caribbean.  In seven years, JetBlue and KaBOOM! have built 12 playgrounds, engaged 2,380 volunteers and served 5,680 children by providing a safe place to play.

This year, JetBlue is excited to build a record number of five playgrounds (Long Beach, CA; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Boston, MA: San Francisco, CA; and New York, NY). Further, to celebrate its partnership with KaBOOM! JetBlue invited customers to vote on the next playground location on its Facebook page in February. San Francisco was the lucky winner and will have a brand new park this fall.

JetBlue is the largest carrier in Puerto Rico as measured by the number of passenger seats offered on flights to and from Puerto Rico, serving San Juan, Aguadilla and Ponce with service to 11 non-stop destinations, including seven within the continental U.S. (Boston, Hartford, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa) and four within the Caribbean (Santo Domingo, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and St. Croix).  JetBlue will continue its growth in Puerto Rico when it begins new service from San Juan to Newark on April 25, 2012 and to West Palm Beach beginning May 15, 2012.

About Apoyo Empresarial para la Peninsula de Cantera           
Apoyo Empresarial para la Peninsula de Cantera is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 that works to improve the conditions of those living in the densely populated neighborhood of the Cantera Peninsula in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The members of Apoyo Empresarial para la Peninsula de Cantera use their community center to offer programs for youth leadership and housing rehabilitation. They plan to use this playground near the community center in order to strengthen the relationship between residents, families, and children living in the Cantera Peninsula.

About KaBOOM!      
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to saving play. Children today spend less time playing outdoors than any previous generation, a fact that is having disastrous consequences on their health, achievement levels, and overall well-being. To fight this play deficit, social entrepreneur Darell Hammond founded non-profit KaBOOM! in 1996 in Washington, D.C. with a vision of creating a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Since then, KaBOOM! has mapped over 89,000 places to play, built more than 2,000 playgrounds, and successfully advocated for play policies in hundreds of cities across the country. KaBOOM! also provides communities with online tools to self-organize and take action to support play on both a local and national level. Hammond chronicles the founding of the organization and the importance of the cause of play in his The New York Times Best Seller KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play. The book details how businesses and communities can work together to save play for children across the country. All author proceeds support KaBOOM!. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.

About JetBlue Corporate Social Responsibility
JetBlue is committed to the cities it serves through support and alignment with not-for-profit organizations that focus on children, education, communities and the environment. Through a variety of programs and activities, JetBlue crewmembers are encouraged to help make an impact and inspire greatness in others while enriching the lives of individuals and communities across the airline's network. Through JetBlue's Community Connection Volunteer Program and other Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, JetBlue partners with a variety of philanthropic and community-focused organizations, including KaBOOM!, DoSomething.org, The American Cancer Society and their Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walks; First Book, a not-for-profit organization with the mission to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books; and PBS KIDS, where JetBlue partnered to create Soar with Reading – Let Your Imagination Take Flight, a literacy campaign to help raise readers. In addition, JetBlue has created a platform called Jetting to Green which encourages environmentally-friendly practices through education and volunteerism.

About JetBlue Airways        
JetBlue Airways, the #1 airline in Puerto Rico, has created a new airline category based on value, service and style. Known for its award-winning service and free TV as much as its low fares JetBlue offers the most legroom in coach of any U.S. airline (based on average fleet-wide seat pitch) and super-spacious Even More Legroom seats. JetBlue is also America's first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue's control. Visit www.jetblue.com/promise for details. JetBlue serves 70 cities with 750 daily flights. Later this year, JetBlue plans to introduce service to Dallas/Fort Worth. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all fares are one-way, and an overnight stay is never required. For information or reservations call 1-800-JET-BLUE (1-800-538-2583), TTY/TDD 1-800-336-5530, 1-801-365-2583, or visit www.jetblue.com.

SOURCE JetBlue Airways