ATLANTA (Dec 8, 2010) – Celebrate Positive announced today that the Indianapolis Colts have been nominated for the inaugural 2010 United Nations NGO Positive Peace Awards in the Professional Sports Team category. This award, viewed as a 21st century peace prize, honors and recognizes individuals, businesses, athletes, sports teams, entertainers and schools around the world for their positive contributions.
The 2010 Positive Peace Award nominees are judged by the United Nations NGO Voting Academy comprised of highly respected United Nations NGOs, such as Rotary International, Pathways to Peace, and Sister Cities International. The Voting Academy will use criteria such as a team's community involvement and their impact on the community to determine this year's winner.
"We are honored and humbled to be nominated and hope that, by example, we may be an inspiration to others", said Jim Irsay, Owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts.
"Celebrate Positive congratulates the Indianapolis Colts and the other nominees for exemplifying what giving back to the community means" said Scott Pederson, President and CEO, Celebrate Positive. "The Indianapolis Colts are a wonderful example of how a professional sports team can make a positive impact in the community."
United Way of Central Indiana nominated the Colts for the award as a thank you to the Colts for their fund raising efforts for human services with incentives already resulting in 3,000 donors who have increased or given for first time. The Colts also run fitness programs in schools and afterschool sites; collect food for the hungry; assist United Way and others to provide new shoes, hats, gloves for underprivileged kids; and leverage United Way marketing dollars to increase community visibility.
"The Indianapolis Colts use their influence and celebrity status to cause a huge amount of good to happen in our community," said Ellen Annala, President of Central Indiana United Way. "More families and children will succeed and improve their lives because of their partnership with United Way, schools, ,and with other organizations in central Indiana. We set a very aggressive fund raising campaign goal this year, only because we knew the Colts would help us succeed".
Rotary International, with several of the world's most active local Rotary Clubs based in Indianapolis, serves on the United Nations NGO Voting Academy
"We at Rotary International are honored to serve on the voting committee for the United Nations NGO Positive Peace Awards," says RI General Secretary Ed Futa. "Every day, Rotary's 1.2 million members address the question, how do we make our world a better place? How appropriate that these awards recognize those organizations who are asking the same question and taking the necessary steps to achieve positive change in our world."
The winner of the sports categories for 2010 United Nations NGO Positive Peace Award will be announced in mid December.
About Celebrate Positive
Celebrate Positive, in coordination with the United Nations and its non-government organizations like, Rotary International, Sister Cities International and Pathways to Peace provides a platform to recognize communities, businesses, schools, athletes and entertainers for the positive work to make a difference in the world. Celebrate Positive has created a destination website that provides inspirational news from around the world as well as efforts being made by the United Nations to promote peace globally. For more information on Celebrate Positive or the organizations and agencies they work with, visit www.celebratepositive.com.
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