On December 20, 2011, Commissioner Adrian Benepe joined Staten Island Deputy Borough President Ed Burke, former Staten Island Borough President Ralph Lamberti, Staten Island Zoo Executive Director Ken Mitchell, Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis, and Mounted Auxiliary Board President Mark Elkins, to call on New Yorkers to volunteer with Parks' Mounted Auxiliary Unit. Parks mounted officers demonstrated Parks' "Horse of Course" program to teach preschoolers from the Broadway YMCA about horses and the Mounted Auxiliary.