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Note from Vegan Outreach

BOO-YAH! Team Vegan Crushes Expectations!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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 Members

Leafleting 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.
-Jack Norris, 4/19/08

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 Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating + 16 Meaningful Life + 28 newsletters. One man said, "I'm ready to go for it -- I'm going to make the change [to veganism]!" I ran into countless vegans/vegetarians (including a vegan jellyfish, right), but even more people who were extremely open to the idea of going vegan, interested in what to eat, how to get proper nutrition, etc. One man said, "But that's what teeth are for!" Me: "So teeth are only for meat?" Him: "Yup." Me: "Not even for cookies??"
     Previously at Baruch College, I lost track of how many students asked for an extra leaflet or two for their friends. At least 4 students told me they were doing presentations on vegetarianism/ factory farming and asked for a few extra leaflets to pass around as visual aids. One student to their friend, "This sh** is wack!" (a pretty common comment)!" Another student approached me with a huge smile on her face and excitedly said, "Hey, I just wanted to tell you, that you totally changed my life and I wanted to thank you. I read the booklet you gave me a few months ago when you were here and haven't eaten any meat since then."
-Eileen Botti, 4/19/08

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!
-LH, 4/18/08

Just to add to last week's post about the Seeds of Compassion leafleting, I received a high five, a thumbs up, a ton of sincere Thank yous, and an "Amen to you." A girl looked through the booklet while standing next to me and said, "This is so sad. What can I do?" I told her that even just reducing her consumption of meat would make a difference for the animals. A number of people returned for multiple copies to give to friends/family. A woman returned a CC pamphlet to me and said, "I read the entire booklet. It was awful. I am only going to eat vegetables now."
-Jessica Dadds, 4/17/08

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, "It works!"
-Jon Camp, 4/18/08

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!
-Heather Leughmyer, 4/16/08

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.
-Twila Hoyle, 4/15/08

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.
-Jodi Chemes, 4/14/08

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Vegan Outreach
P.O. Box 30865
Tucson, AZ 85751-0865

VO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; all donations are tax-deductible.