Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • August 11, 2010 | |||||||||||||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
Activist Profile: Nick LesieckiContinuing our series of activist profiles, we meet leafleting giant, Nick Lesiecki. Since he started leafleting, Nick has reached over 21,000 individuals – including 2,075 in one day! Here’s an excerpt: What made you decide to start leafleting? Anna took me out with her one day to hand out leaflets at San Jose State. We handed out 700 leaflets in a few hours, and I thought to myself, “Hey, this isn’t hard!” I reviewed Vegan Outreach’s estimates about the conversion rate per booklet, and I realized that leafleting has the most bang for the buck of any volunteer activity – I can literally save thousands of animals in a few hours. That’s what keeps me motivated – knowing there’s a direct and immediate impact. What would you say to individuals hesitant about leafleting? The first leaflet is the hardest to hand out. Once you get over that hump, the rest is easy. Set a modest goal for yourself at first (“I’ll hand out 50 leaflets today”), and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results. If you’ve been involved in any other area of animal rights (for example, manning an information booth), leafleting will seem more daunting at first – but the rewards of feeling like you’ve accomplished something make it well worthwhile.
Please Vote for Vegan OutreachWant to give VO’s work more exposure? Please vote for Vegan Outreach as Favorite Nonprofit Vegetarian Organization in the current VegNews poll. You can vote between now and August 31. Thanks!
From the Jack Norris RD and “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” Blogs
Products of the Week
Anne: “Check out this jewelry handmade by Bonnie Goodman, who spreads the message of compassion in Montana!” Darina (who also recommends Bonnie’s jewelry) writes: “Try Ethiopian cuisine at your next opportunity. The unique, family-style, silverware-free dining provides a rich and bond-building experience in addition to the blissful taste.” Please submit your product of the week via this page; previous entries here.
Notes from All OverLightning Round
Notes from Our Members
What
a great weekend of outreach! Last
night, we reached over a thousand people attending
a rock festival, and today we leafleted Baltimore
Pride Fest. The crowd was amazingly receptive
and we had many great conversations about animals
this weekend. A woman today said she has been
trying to shift towards a vegetarian diet, and
referring to a VO leaflet, said, “This
looks like it will help me a lot.” No doubt
there are more vegetarians today than there
were yesterday! After
reading your booklet, I want to
become completely vegan. I received
a Compassionate Choices booklet
from a woman in Bryant Park, New York City.
After reading about the cruelty to animals in
the slaughterhouses, I now refuse to consume
any animals ever again. Thanks! I was at the Warped Tour
and people were handing out booklets. I took
one and decided to take a look at it. After
reading it, I wanted to learn more – please
send me a Guide.
I just wanted to express how
much I appreciate the Vegan Outreach site.… While I appreciate (another
group’s) goals, their all-or-nothing tone always left me feeling
guilty and discouraged. Vegan Outreach is the
first vegan advocacy and information site that
I’ve seen that makes me feel good about my recent
decision to drop meat and fowl and explore new
foods and cooking methods. Kudos for making
a convincing case for veganism without making
people feel selfish and evil if they don’t get
to 100% immediately! A good use of time at
Northwestern University. One young woman came
up to tell me that the booklet was very enlightening
and that the not-all-or-nothing approach made
her realize that even if she didn’t go completely
veg, she should still make changes.
In my
short time at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, I heard from well over
20 vegetarians and four vegans, a sign that
we’re doing our job in Chicago. A sparse
summer crowd at Arizona State,
but some groups of high school students were
walking around. I overheard one group talking
– a girl was saying she was going to “cut out”
meat, while a guy responded that although he
wasn’t going vegetarian, he was going to cut
way back. Also spoke to a Muslim student who
seemed interested in the brochure and asked
for a couple of extra. Great
outreach, with lots of good feedback,
at Miami Dade College and Broward College. For
example, I met a man who said that his teenage
son and daughter had been asking to eat more
veg foods at home. He was happy to get a Compassionate
Choices and a Guide, and planned
to share it with his wife and recommend that
they eat veg meals “most of the time.”
Good
leafleting at Taste of Brunswick.
A teenager who took a leaflet came back later
to ask how he could get more information. I
directed him to the website, and he thanked
me for giving him the leaflet. An old man came
up to me to see what I was handing out. He opened
it and said, “Ya know, so many problems
happen in the world because not enough people
are paying attention. We all need to be more
aware of things like this.” It was
an exhausting day in the blazing
sun leafleting the Phish concert, but totally
worth it. Many commendations of our effort and
was told frequently that we’re doing great work.
Best comment of the day: A woman showed an Even
If You Like Meat to her 5-to-6-year-old son,
who pointed to a picture and asked, “What’s
that?” His mother replied, “That’s
a pig in there. That’s why mommy and daddy don’t
eat meat.”
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