Today is the day! To learn more about this ongoing effort and this very special day, please visit http://peaceoneday.org/en/welcome.

We lead off with an introduction about the movement and then highlight the piece about adidas and Puma.

(Intro, from http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/about/introduction)

In 1999, preoccupied with questions about the fundamental nature of humanity and the most pressing issues of our time, filmmaker Jeremy Gilley launched Peace One Day and set out to find a starting point for peace. He had a mission: to document his efforts to establish the first ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence with a fixed calendar date.

Remarkably, two years on, he achieved his primary objective when the 192 member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted 21 September as an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on the UN International Day of Peace. We call that day Peace Day.

adidas and Puma Together for Peace
http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/connect/features/adidas-and-PUMA-together-for-Peace

Herzogenaurach, Germany, 17 September 2009 – It will be a historic hand shake: In support of the peace initiative PEACE ONE DAY the two sportswear companies adidas and PUMA will shake hands for the first time after six decades. As a sign of amicable cooperation, employees of both companies will play football together on Peace Day, 21September, and subsequently watch the movie “The Day after Peace” by Jeremy Gilley, director and founder of PEACE ONE DAY. These events will be the first joint activities of both companies since their founders Rudolf and Adi Dassler left their shared firm and established adidas and PUMA.

The joint initiative aims at raising awareness for PEACE ONE DAY and the necessity of peaceful cohabitation. adidas and PUMA will also take the message and idea of PEACE

ONE DAY into the football stadiums in Munich and Stuttgart through surprise highlights during the halftimes of the German premier league games FC Bayern München – 1. FCNürnber and VfB Stuttgart – 1. FC Köln on 19 September.

“We at adidas are very proud to support PEACE ONE DAY together with PUMA. We firmly believe that sport can bring the world together. Sport has shown this at countless occasions in the past and we are committed to the positive values found in sport: performance and passion, teamwork and fair play,” said Herbert Hainer, CEO of adidas AG. “I am looking very much forward to our adidas and PUMA football match and I hope that our joint initiative helps to raise further awareness for PEACE ONE DAY around the world.”

Jochen Zeitz, Chairman and CEO of PUMA, said: „We are uniting on this day as a commitment to Peace Day. Our common goal being that our collaboration today will help create awareness for the day. Kofi Annan once said that ‘individuals can make a difference and collectively we can make a major contribution’. I believe that is the case also for companies. And our unity, in support of Peace Day, is a small step in a positive direction as well as an expression of the united power of sport in a world which we are all responsible for.”

(The news piece continues at http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/connect/features/adidas-and-PUMA-together-for-Peace)