Founded in April 2009, K&S was the first film festival in North America devoted exclusively to soccer. The success of the inaugural, sold-out K&S/New York Festival spurred not only the highly successful second annual K&S/New York Festival in 2010, but also satellite festivals in Washington, DC; Houston; North Adams, Mass.; and, most recently, Amsterdam. K&S has screened more than 30 films from over 14 countries, including seven U.S. premieres, and has attracted thousands of attendees from across the globe.

Starting today, filmmakers can submit entries for the 2011 K&S/New York by visiting: http://www.kickingandscreening.com/blog/submissions.html.

Important dates include:

• April 20, 2011 – DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS
• June 6, 2011 – OFFICIAL FILM LINEUP ANNOUNCED; TICKETS GO ON SALE
• July 20-23, 2011 – THIRD ANNUAL KICKING AND SCREENING FILM FESTIVAL

Additional planned 2011 Festival dates include K&S/Portland in April and K&S/London in September.

Kicking & Screening to Benefit Soccer Without Borders

K&S is dedicated to using the Festival as an agent of change. To that end, a portion of the proceeds from every K&S Festival is donated to local, socially conscious organizations using soccer to promote positive change in the world. The chosen social partner for K&S in 2011 is Soccer Without Borders (SWB).

Founded in 2008 by Ben Gucciardi, SWB is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that uses soccer as a vehicle for positive change in the lives of marginalized youth. SWB runs soccer-related programs in New York, Oakland, and Baltimore in the United States, and in Nicaragua, Argentina, Guatemala, and Uganda internationally. Programs consist of four elements: Soccer Play and Instruction; Training Coaches, Training Leaders; Life-Skills Education; and Themed Camps and Tournaments. For more information about Soccer Without Borders, visit http://www.soccerwithoutborders.org.

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About Kicking & Screening

Founded in April 2009 by Greg Lalas and Rachel Markus, the Kicking & Screening (K&S) Soccer Film Festival is the world’s premier international soccer film festival held in New York City every summer and features satellite festivals around the globe. Kicking & Screening’s mission is to engage, connect, and inspire soccer and film enthusiasts through the celebration and presentation of soccer culture. Dedicated to showcasing the best soccer cultural events, K&S provides a forum for soccer-inspired filmmakers, artists, and writers to showcase their work and bring attention to this under-appreciated, emerging genre. For more information, visit: http://www.kickingandscreening.com.

Now, more than ever before, we need our friends and partners to stand with us and send us all the shoes they can spare, said Wayne Elsey, Founder and CEO of the charity. We’ve sent everything we had to suffering people. Thankfully, we have the most amazing support network of individual heroes, and today, we need them to engage their family and friends to clean out their closets and help us respond to the needs of people around the world and here in the US, he said.

Elsey said that supporters could create their own neighborhood shoe drives, network with their friends (school, church, gym, or Facebook) to create a community event, or simply clean out their own closets and send the shoes to the closest collection point.

In addition to participation locations for individual donations, 12 Suddath locations have joined forces with our four permanent warehouses to act as collection points for large donations. Suddath has teamed with Soles4Souls during the past year by offering discount transportation and collection facilities. They requested to be a part of this effort to help reuse the estimated 1.5 billion pairs of shoes sitting idle in closets.

The charity acts as a comprehensive recycling program for footwear, as it gives new purpose to shoes lying dormant in closets, attics and garages. Soles4Souls does not throw out any footwear it receives. If any donated shoes are unusable, the charity recycles the footwear into materials used for playgrounds, insulation and other uses.

According to Soles4Souls, this has happened once before when the charity responded to victims of three natural disasters within a 5 week period. Today, because of the charity’s aggressive donation policy toward helping victims in the Gulf Coast, survivors of the Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods, and answering countless requests from Americans in need (combined with a sluggish economic climate), it is running low on much-needed footwear donations.

If you ever wanted to be an active part of the Soles4Souls team, now is the chance to jump in with both feet and make a significant impact in your community and around the world, Elsey said. We need you to respond to our call to action and contact us, he said.

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More About Soles4Souls®
Soles4Souls collects shoes from warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. We distribute these shoes, free of charge, to people in need around the world. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away over 11 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes in 126 countries (currently distributing one pair every 7 seconds). Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) recognized by the IRS and donating parties are eligible for tax advantages. Visit www.giveshoes.org for more information.

Westford, MA

“Giving back is an integral part of our brand DNA at PUMA which comes to life through our Project Pink program with Women’s Professional Soccer,” explained Tara McRae, senior director of marketing for PUMA North America. “Project Pink has resonated with the players, the fans, and our company. There’s a lot of personal passion driving this program forward, and we’re looking forward to finally taking it public and getting consumers involved.”

It’s not all about us, though. In true PUMA fashion, with an eye on both engaging and empowering the female soccer community, the brand is giving consumers a voice. Launching July 31, PUMA is hosting a forum at wps.pumafootball.com/projectpink that invites interaction with the Project Pink initiative. The site allows for the nomination of breast cancer charities with nonprofit status; supporters can then log on to vote for the winner, who will ultimately receive a donation consisting of 100% of the profits from the sale of PUMA Project Pink product. The nomination period will open on August 7; voting will begin on September 13. The crowd favorite will be announced and the donation made in late October.

WPS teams including the Boston Breakers, Washington Freedom, FC Gold Pride, Philadelphia Independence, and Sky Blue FC have joined with PUMA to rally behind Project Pink, designating matches in July and August to help raise awareness for the cause. Players from each home team will sport special Project Pink kits developed by PUMA, and PUMA’s Project Pink match ball will be utilized throughout each game. Project Pink-themed activities will also be hosted in pre-game Fanzones and throughout the matches. WPS teams the Atlanta Beat and Chicago Red Stars will also support Project Pink with events later in the season.

Project Pink game dates are as follows:

PUMA athlete and Philadelphia Independence goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc will be serving, along with fellow players and PUMA athletes Leslie Osborne (Boston Breakers) and Amy Rodriguez (Philadelphia Independence), as a spokeswoman for the Project Pink cause. “As a woman in sports, I always support promoting an active, healthy lifestyle,” LeBlanc explained. “Plus, a number of my close friends and family have been affected by breast cancer. I’m out here doing what I love, and any chance I have to be a part of a project like this to show my passion for what I do and link with a good cause is a no-brainer.”

In line with the first match, PUMA’s new range of Project Pink merchandise is set to debut on July 26 on shop.puma.com and at select PUMA Stores and other retail partners. It will also be sold at participating stadiums during WPS games throughout the season. Allowing soccer fans and novice athletes to show their support alongside their favorite players, PUMA’s Project Pink replica jersey, tee-shirts in pink and white, trainer and (mini) skill ball, and gym sack will all be available for purchase.

Samples of the Puma Project Pink gear

In an effort to drive additional awareness to the cause, the brand will be using the Twitter hash tag #projectpink when communicating updates about Project Pink and will also encourage fans creating content to do the same. For every tweet using the hash tag from July 31 through October 18, PUMA will donate an additional $1 to the Project Pink cause, up to a maximum of $25,000. PUMA will count one tweet using the hash tag per user per day.

PUMA became an official founding partner of WPS and an official sponsor of all WPS franchises in December 2008. The multi-year partnership makes PUMA the official sport and lifestyle apparel, footwear and equipment supplier of WPS, including the official WPS Match Ball; PUMA is also the official supplier of PUMA WPS Fanwear. PUMA’s roster of WPS athletes includes four-time FIFA World Player of the Year, Marta, as well as Natasha Kai, Leslie Osborne, Amy Rodriguez, Karina LeBlanc, and Alex Scott.

On a global scale, PUMA Football’s portfolio includes five European National Teams, including Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic, 2010 FIFA World Cup™ contenders Uruguay, and 13 African soccer Federations including the current CAF African Cup of Nations™ holders Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast. PUMA also sponsors men’s soccer players including Jay Demerit, Brian Ching, Heath Pearce, Dwayne De Rosario, Matt Reis, and Kasey Keller.

For more information about Project Pink and PUMA’s partnership with WPS, visit wps.pumafootball.com.

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PUMA

PUMA is one of the world’s leading Sportlifestyle companies that designs and develops footwear, apparel and accessories. It is committed to working in ways that contribute to the world by supporting Creativity, SAFE Sustainability and Peace, and by staying true to the principles of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in decisions made and actions taken. PUMA starts in Sport and ends in Fashion. Its Sport Performance and Lifestyle labels include categories such as Football, Running, Motorsports, Golf and Sailing. Sport Fashion features collaborations with renowned designer labels such as Alexander McQueen, Mihara Yasuhiro and Sergio Rossi. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Cobra Golf and Tretorn. The company, which was founded in 1948, distributes its products in more than 120 countries, employs more than 9,000 people worldwide and has headquarters in Herzogenaurach/Germany, Boston, London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.puma.com