The 2014 Peace Day Global Broadcast - September 20th and 21st

By Bill McCarthy with Laurien Towers

One spring morning in 2009 I had an inspiring idea: What if for one day there was a media focus exclusively on promoting peace? The UN International Day of Peace on September 21st would be the most appropriate day, and the Internet would be the perfect vehicle. Excited by the prospect I called my producing partner Laurien Towers. She thought it was a great idea and committed to do everything she could to make it happen.

We realized if we were going to create an Internet broadcast for the UN International Day of Peace that the first person to call was Avon Mattison, President of Pathways To Peace since her organization was the Secretariat for the Culture of Peace Initiative at the UN. We left a message for Avon. She responded a few hours later saying "Robert Muller and I have been waiting for this call for 25 years". Avon later told us that she and Robert had talked about there being one day dedicated to promoting peace in the media 25 years earlier. This was long before the Internet connected the world so they had been talking about television and radio. So now we had Avon and Robert's blessing, and needed to focus on what to do next!

Laurien and I knew how to use the internet and send emails but neither of us had any technical skill or understanding of how to actually create an Internet broadcast. But we had faith that if we just kept moving forward that by the power of our intention it would all come together. As “faith” would have it, one of our producing associates, Charles Strong, did know Internet experts Stephen Fantl and Kevin Kerber, who got excited by the project and helped us develop the first Peace Day Global Broadcast which was launched on the UN International Day of Peace, September 21st, 2009. It was an amazing experience when the broadcast began and our dream of promoting peace around the world was realized. As an interesting coincidence, September 21st is Laurien's Birthday and 9/21/2009 was the 40th Anniversary of the very first event I had ever produced. We both felt very blessed and grateful for the outcome which proved that if your intention is focused and clear the universe will indeed manifest your dreams!

We would LOVE for YOU and your community to participate in the Peace Day Global Broadcast!

Organizations and individuals can submit brief videos (3 to 4 minutes in length) for consideration by our selection committee. The quality of the videos must be in alignment with the overall quality of the Peace Day Global Broadcast. A Preview of the 2014 Peace Day Global Broadcast can be viewed at www.unityfoundation.org. The process is to send the links for the videos to unityfoundation1@aol.com by August 21st, 2014. All submissions will be reviewed by September 1st. A response from the selection committee will be sent to the senders by September 10th.

Here is more information about the Peace Day Global Broadcast:

The Peace Day Global Broadcast is a 24 hour, Internet based, live streaming celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace. The broadcast is a media vehicle of Unity Foundation www.unityfoundation.org. The Peace Day Global Broadcast is a project of the International Day of Peace - NGO Committee at the United Nations Global Webcast Peace Team, of which Laurien and I are the co-chairs.

Unity Foundation's passion is to support the world's changemaking organizations and individuals by providing Free Promotion for their vitally important work for humanity on the annual Peace Day Global Broadcast.

Now in its 6th year, the broadcasts stream live from the United Nations website and more than 2,000 organizational websites and Facebook pages, reaching millions around the world. The broadcasts have streamed live events from as many as 30 locations in 23 countries. The Peace Day Global Broadcast has an embed code underneath the broadcast player which allows anyone to embed the broadcast on their website and automatically become a peace broadcaster. We invite everyone to embed the code and become an organizational or personal peace broadcaster.

The broadcasts promote the vitally important work of the United Nations, it's humanitarian agencies, and organizations working for peace, the environment, human rights, and social and economic justice. The program features video presentations showcasing the activities of numerous humanitarian and activist organizations, music videos, and personal messages of peace. The Peace Day Global Broadcast can be viewed at www.unityfoundation.org on September 20th and 21st, 2014.

Official UN Messengers of Peace - Michael Douglas, Dr. Jane Goodall, Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Maathai, author Paulo Cuehlo, and Princess Haya of Jordan have presented their personal messages of peace. Other prominent people who have presented their messages of peace include: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Marianne Williamson, Ed Asner, Rosanna Barr, Edward James Olmos, Diane Ladd, Marilu Henner, Peter Coyote, Lou Ferrigno, Michelle Phillips, Michael Nouri, Margaret O'Brien, UN High Representative for Disarmament Angela Kane, Jeremy Gilley, Rev. Michael Beckwith, Chief Golden Light Eagle, Olympian Marilyn King and the International Peace Choir.

This year, through special arrangement with Black Entertainment Television (BET) and Sunseeker Media we will present an encore presentation of Stevie Wonder's "Message of Peace" UN Day Concert at the United Nations. The concert features Stevie Wonder, Sting, Wyclef Jean, Doug E. Fresh, Jonelle Monae, BeBe Winans, Valerie Simpson, the Wonder Girls, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and other prominent musicians.

The 2014 broadcast will be directed by 3 time Emmy Award Winning Director, Tim Powell. Mr. Powell is also the Director of the Television Department at San Diego State University, where the 2014 broadcast studio will be located.

Unity Foundation also provides Low Cost Promotion for the world's changemaking organizations and individuals on the foundation's "Positive Spin" television program. For 16 years, "Positive Spin" has been promoting positive, innovative and solution oriented news from around the world. The program airs nationally in the United States on the nation's two largest satellite networks - DIRECT TV and DISH Network, reaching 37 million homes in the US. The program also streams live from the website of FreeSpeech TV at www.freespeech.org.

Bill McCarthy has extensive experience as a special event producer, television producer, and director of international media campaigns. He has a 45 year history of producing major events for humanitarian and activist causes in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. Bill's events have featured many of the most prominent people in the movie, television, and music industries and drawn audiences as large as 300,000 people. Bill is the Founder and President of Unity Foundation, a non-profit organization with a 39 year history of promoting peace, cooperation and unity throughout the world. The foundation's media campaigns have reached more than 500 million people; and the organization's "Positive Spin" television program, that presents positive, innovative and solution oriented news from around the world airs nationally in the US. In 2009 Bill co-founded with Laurien Towers the Peace Day Global Broadcast Celebrating the UN International Day of Peace.

Laurien Towers has an extensive background as Producer/Director for live, global telecasts, concerts, documentaries, animation, conferences and film festivals. She has produced entertainment events, conferences and film festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Sweden and Moscow. Her credits include being a Feature Producer on LIVE AID, Segment Producer for Hands Across America, Producer for Our Common Future and Earth 90, global concerts on environmental awareness, Executive Producer, "Stereotypes", the first Soviet-American Animated Co-production, and Co-founder/Executive Director of Global Kids International Film and Television Festival. Most recently she was Event Director for the 29th California Women's Conference. Laurien has dedicated her life to working on projects that promote cross-cultural understanding, support indigenous peoples, human rights, environmental sustainability and foster world peace.