Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • April 23, 2008 | ||
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Note from Vegan OutreachBOO-YAH! Team Vegan Crushes Expectations!
We were told we wouldn't be able to raise that much. We were told we could never run that far. We were told most of our team would drop out by the end of the first month.
Drumroll please... Team Vegan 08 raised a total of $86,948 - more than 4 times our goal. Yes, we added that up correctly. No, we are not exaggerating by a penny. Nancy Thomas, right, was top fundraiser.
Nancy, Melanie, Jeannie, Elizabeth, Nick, Corey, Allison, Nicole, Nina, Emily K, Mark, Mary, Elise, Emily M, Andrea, Uva, Lauren, Kristie, Steve, Alex, Matt and our honorary runners Todd, Doug, Eric, Daniel, Jack and Ruby. Don't ever let anyone say you are less than amazing! Vegan Outreach would like to give a very special thank you to Alex Bury (left) for volunteering over 100 hours to put Team Vegan together and make it such a smashing success! Full story, with more pictures!
Notes from Our MembersLeafleting at the City
of Berkeley Earth Day Festival,
Alex told me that there was little
point for us to be there, since
almost everyone was already vegan.
You’ve come a long way, Baby.
At the 2007 AIDS Walk
Houston, I was offered
a Why Vegan? at least 4
times by different leafleters. I
refused all of them until the final
one as I crossed the finish line.
Then, I said, "Fine, I’ll take
it!" I probably put that booklet
down at least 5 or 6 times before
I read it all in horror and disbelief,
ending up in tears. Since I finally
took that booklet and read it, both
my husband and I have been vegetarians.
I was so happy to see a leafleter
this year at AIDS Walk Houston so
I could thank him for being there
and tell him how getting a booklet
last year definitely changed me.
So for all you leafleteers out there,
thanks for being persistent and
remember -- 5th time is the charm,
so don't ever give up!
Emily Pepe (right) and Nick Lesiecki (below) leaflet at Seeds of Compassion; photos by Jessica Dadds. At Montgomery College,
I heard numerous positive comments
including, "Your doing good
work," "I support your
cause," and my favorite, "I
just wanted you to know that I got
a booklet from you about a year
ago and since then, my daughter
and I have been vegetarian."
I thanked her for considering the
information and for making changes;
she in turn thanked me for the outreach,
repeating, Gretchen Littlefield
and I had a good response
tabling Indiana-Purdue University
Fort Wayne. Many people seemed interested
in the vegetarianism. My favorite
comment was from a guy who pointed
to a booklet and said he went vegetarian
from reading it. Come to find out,
I was the one who gave it to him.
I was so excited to see the direct
effects of my leafleting! IMO, leafleting
the Vegan Outreach booklets is by
far the best form of activism a
person can do! At the All Ages Show
at House of Blues, the
new doorman read the leaflet while
we were waiting for the show to
end. He said this leaflet made him
want to stop eating meat. I'm not
going to stop until every employee
at the HOB goes veg! One woman wanted
some extras to give to her coworkers,
and another said, "I got one
of these last time -- it made me
cry. That's why I'm a vegetarian!"
There was a vegan girl who was VERY
excited to get her leaflet, so I
gave her A Meaningful Life,
and told her this is who we are.
I am determined to make more advocates
down here. Someone who tabled
at No More Homeless
Pets told me the Compassionate
Choices booklet was perfect
for tabling. Different people staffing
the table reported people coming
back after having read a Vegan Outreach
booklet, saying they are going to
go veg.
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On
February 2nd, 2008, eighteen brave
athletes created Team Vegan. Some
of the best donors around came to
help the team start their journey.
We had three months to train to
run a 10k (6.2 miles) or a half
marathon (13.1 miles) and each raise
$1,000 for Vegan Outreach. 
But
what happened? All 18 runners ran
in the Santa Cruz 10k/Half Marathon,
proudly wearing Team Vegan t-shirts,
and three more joined us in spirit
from New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania!
The total raised? Well, if each
runner had raised $1000, we would
have celebrated $21,000 for Vegan
Outreach. We did not raise $21,000,
however.
The
biggest hurdle to creating a veg
world is lack of money. Thank you,
Team Vegan, for helping us make
that hurdle a little smaller! We
proudly salute our team:
I
tabled and leafleted at
Stony Brook's annual Earth Day Festival.
It was totally amazing outreach
-- 600 Why Vegan + 600
Compassionate Choices +
325 Even If You Like Meat
+ 60 
Just
to add to 
"It
works!"