Andrew Garfield urges students to fight bullying by supporting one another at the Albert Shanker School in Long Island City.
New Yorkers proved Tuesday what we already knew — that they are Amazin’!
They came out in droves for the “Be Amazing, Stand Up and Volunteer” events, sponsored by Columbia Pictures and “The Amazing Spider-Man,” across the city.
And so did the film’s stars.
Spidey himself, Andrew Garfield, visited the Albert Shanker School for Visual and Performing Arts in Long island City, Queens, as part of NYC’s Success Mentor Program.
Garfield, 28, spoke to the intermediate school students about bullying, saying that he was picked on while he was a young student in England, and knows now he should have told someone about it.
He advised students to support each other.
“I think that’s what Spider-Man always stood for,” Garfield said. “Hate doesn’t end hate. Love ends hate.”
Student Tionna Daley, 14, of Long Island City, said Spider-Man teaches that when people do wrong, it’s best “to try to make them do good.”
Student Nicholas Felumero, 12, of Astoria, said that the character of Spider-Man taught him to “help people in his neighborhood.”
Later in the day, in Brooklyn, Garfield and his “Amazing Spider-Man” co-stars Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans and Denis Leary, along with director Marc Webb, discussed the importance of volunteering at the Farragut Houses and the adjacent Madison Boys Girls Club.
The filmmakers joined NYC Service Chief Service Officer Diahann Billings-Burford and more than 200 volunteers at Boys Girls Club, planting gardens, finishing a “Be Amazing” mural and more.
As Garfield shot hoops with some of the older kids, Webb said, “Spider-Man and New York are infinitely connected.”
