Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • December 15, 2010 | |||||||||||||||||
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This donation is to acknowledge
the person who passed out leaflets at Temple
University. I was inspired to start eating vegan
then, a choice I feel good about every day. Here is my donation to the matching.
It really is basic: The more people who receive
a booklet, the more lives are saved.
Just One Word: RESULTS!
As you know, Vegan Outreach’s singular focus is reducing as much suffering as possible. Our work together may not get glitzy media coverage, but it does get results! And we’ve just seen the most amazing indication of these results: Bon Appétit, which manages thousands of university food accounts, recently found the number of collegiate vegetarians has increased by 50% since 2006. They also found that the number of vegans has more than doubled! This is the bottom line for Vegan Outreach: Results! This is why activists across the continent work with Vegan Outreach: Results! This is why donors contribute to Vegan Outreach: Results!
You can see it in polls and surveys. You can see it in the daily feedback. You can see it in the numbers:
Every one of these booklets efficiently and effectively cuts through the billion-dollar lies and deception of modern agribusiness. Every day, we’re swelling the ranks of compassionate, informed individuals. Every dollar efficiently and effectively provides the animals a voice.
Your contribution creates concrete results! And today, you can take advantage of the matching challenge put together by your fellow donors to double your donation, dollar for dollar, and multiply our results! So please click over to our secure donation page and keep the results coming! For
the animals, PS – Every single dollar you can give is the perfect gift: real action and real results!
To leaflet
SUNY Albany, I took a tip from
Leslie and dressed to the hilt for the 12 freezy
degreezies. I had overboots on to shield my
feet from the pavement, ski pants, two scarves,
two sweaters, my winter coat, and one mitten.
I felt exuberant about getting a chance to leaflet,
so I was super upbeat, and people were grinning
at me and very polite! One person praised me
for braving the cold, and many looked impressed.
I was SO glad to have a chance to get one more
leafleting outing in before finals week because
I know these booklets pack a punch. I was
able to leaflet while down in
Florida for a week. A receptive crowd and some
good conversations at the University of Miami,
where the VO member with the vegan food booth
put out some more booklets, in addition to the
1,535 I distributed. Next, I reached 1,600 at
the University of Central Florida. Finally,
at Broward College, several people asked why
I was leafleting on “the coldest day of
the year” (55 degrees), which was funny. Today
was both my first time leafleting
a college, and the first time Tennessee Tech
had been leafleted. Over half the students took
a booklet with a smile; many thanked me. I had
dozens of positive interactions! The highlight
of the morning was when one young lady saw the
cover and commented, “I like animals, but
I eat chickens.” I asked her if she didn’t
think all animals suffered the same. She didn’t
seem sure, so she asked me if I ate chickens.
I told her I did not. She asked if I wanted
her to stop eating chickens. I told her that
she would be doing a wonderful thing if she
even read the information within and decided
to cut back. She seemed to agree with that,
and it spurred her two friends to take booklets,
too. I chose to stay on focus and promote harm
reduction rather than purity, and it won people
over! This outreach does work! I will be leafleting
again for sure. Incredibly
receptive crowds at Harper Payton
High School and Lakeview High School – nearly
every student took a booklet. Lots of students
reading the booklets and discussing them. Some
students said, “Thanks for doing this.”
One even asked if she could volunteer.
Check out these stories from Cal State San Bernadino and San Bernadino Valley College:
—Nikki Benoit, 10/14/10 Callie,
Barb, and I had a very good day
of outreach at Central Oregon Community College
– very high take rate and good conversations.
As people walked by me to go back to their cars,
lots of them commented about how gross the leaflet
was and said they read it during their class.
Awesome
day of leafleting at Auraria with
Barbara (Bear)! We lit up the campus, reaching
over 1,750 students! Really great conversations,
and Barbara made the best banana bread in the
history of the universe! Some
good conversations with ag students
at South Dakota State University, with all of
them leaving on good terms. One guy even said,
“You’ve given me a lot to think about.
I appreciate you taking the time to talk.”
At the University of South Dakota, though, a
beef spokesperson refused to read the booklet,
and kept trying to find fault with me, personally,
because she couldn’t find fault with my reasoning.
At the
University of Tampa, I heard from
a bunch of vegetarians and vegans. One student
came back to say, “I’ve been thinking for
a long time about going vegetarian. Getting
this pamphlet today must be some kind of sign
to take that step!” He happily accepted
a Guide and thanked me for being there.
Another student said he is currently writing
a paper about industrialized farming, and he
seemed glad to get this information. Great
leafleting at the Chicago House
of Blues. One woman said she’s going vegan,
and another said it was getting a booklet in
the past that led her to go vegetarian. Loads
of people wanted more information. Over 3,200
Huskies received a booklet from
Aleta, Stephanie, Anouk, Julia, or me these
past two days at the University of Connecticut.
A whole slew of people wanted to get involved
with the campus group and/or Vegan Outreach!
Aleta and I were interviewed by three different
students, and a bunch told us the booklet had
changed or was going to change their diet. Amanda
and I reached over 2,600 students
at the University of South Carolina today –
an incredibly productive day of outreach! Two
young women let us know that they planned on
going veg as a result of reading the Even
If today, and another woman told us she
planned on going vegan because of the booklet. Great
leafleting at Harold Washington
College. Heard from tons of vegans
and vegetarians and other young people who said
that they “don’t eat animals.” Some
students stopped with questions about the leaflets.
One young man told me that he received the leaflet
before and “it messed up my day.”
I told him that I appreciated his honesty and
that it affected him so much.
Brian
(right) and I had a good day at
Washtenaw Community College, Concordia University,
and the University of Michigan, Dearborn. One
girl stopped dead in her tracks and read the
leaflet cover to cover! She got a Guide, of
course. Others expressed interest and a few
came back for more booklets. At Cal
State Sacramento, a rancher who
had taken a booklet found us later and said
the information was not only completely accurate,
but, in some cases, the treatment of animals
on factory farms was worse than described in
the booklet. We talked for about 15 minutes,
and I could really see his wheels turning. He
told me about particular animals he raised for
slaughter that he has fond memories of; he even
called them by names. He agreed that all animals
have unique personalities and an interest in
their own lives. He also agreed that there is
no true difference between a cow and a dog except
that we eat one and not the other. He described
times he witnessed slaughter when the animals
were still clearly alive, and he acknowledged
it was cruel. He wasn’t apologetic, but still
very open to what I had to say. He said he only
does it for the profit, and after a moment of
silence, said, “I guess that’s not the
best justification.” Wow! Get
real results!
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