Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • July 11, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
You & Team Vegan: the PayoffEven as our amazing leafleters are reaching thousands and thousands of new people at every stop of the Warped Tour (so far: 179,867 leaflets at 18 shows, between 81 different leafleters, with 15 hosts, and 9,672 miles driven), Vegan Outreach is gearing up to print 700,000 copies of the new Compassionate Choices and Even If You Like Meat for Adopt a College’s fall term. All of this is possible only because of the stunning efforts of everyone involved with Team Vegan, who brought in a record $250,000+ to print and distribute more VO booklets! Because of all of you who have dedicated yourselves to striking at the root, VO activists across the continent will be heading into fall semester in a position to provide the animals the most effective voice ever! It’s been an honor to work with the Team Vegan members! They spent two months beating the bushes to raise money from friends, family, coworkers, etc. Special thanks to John, Fany, Steve & Steve, Nick, Anna, Kathryn, Brian & Brian, and, of course, Anonymous, whose matching challenge and double doubling helped increase everyone’s impact! We’re deeply and truly thankful that you believe in VO’s work and use your contributions to help others have a bigger impact! If we are to bring about the new world we all want, where animals aren’t viewed as mere commodities but rather are treated with the respect they are due, it will obviously require that people no longer view animals as food. This fundamental change can’t take place from the top down; it must occur from the bottom up. Together, we are making this happen, every day.
From “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” & Jack Norris RD Blogs
Pie of the WeekToo hot to bake, or just want an easy, tasty treat? Whip up a chocolate peanut butter pie! Great with fresh fruit! (Anne says: or extra chocolate) Please submit your nominees for product of the week via this page; previous entries here.
Notes from Our Members
What an absolutely
stunning day of outreach – 14,000 individuals
were reached in Chicago. With a team of some
of the most talented individuals around – Mikael [right],
Elizabeth, Riley, Kevin, Pamela, Jennifer, Nathan,
Jennifer, Vic, Kenny, Joe, Leslie, Sacha, and
Tyler the security guard! – we were able to
set an all-time record! ’Twas no easy task –
with five different exits and an attendance
of at least 20,000, we had to be on our A game
for many hours. Now on to Minneapolis! Wow! What a day at
Manchester Community College. I met many vegetarians
and vegans. After reading the Compassionate
Choices, one student turned vegetarian
on the spot. Another student wants help going
vegan, but lives at home and has run-ins with
her parents; we exchanged emails. Another guy
said he would work on going vegan with his mom!
Met several others who had been vegetarian or
vegan, but went back to eating meat; they will
work again on going veg after our discussions.
The vice president of student government wants
to have me come back next semester to speak.
Met another student who wants to go vegan and
wants to leaflet next time I come back. I gave
her a stack of Even If You Like Meat
booklets to give out to her friends and on campus.
She will contact VO, too! The leafleting gods
were with me today! I am psyched!
Anon and I had a fabulous day
of outreach at Santa Fe College, where we reached
over 1,100 polite students (a record) who gave
us tons of thank yous. Heard from two students
who are going to eliminate consumption of land
animals and another three who are now on their
way to going vegetarian. They loved the Guide.
One student said she found a brochure on a desk
and read it through. She couldn’t eat the ham
sandwich she brought for lunch, and said she
was likely going vegetarian. I encouraged her
and gave her a Guide. Another guy came
over asking if that happens to all of the chickens
we eat; we had a nice conversation. Afterward,
we dined on a scrumptious $4 lunch (they actually
have a deal where your first time is free),
compliments of Hare Krishnas at Santa Fe College.
(They are also on the University of Florida
and Florida State University campuses every
day, and most of the food is vegan.) Victoria, Mara,
and I reached over 1,100 students at Austin Peay
University and Tennessee State, although the
outreach transcends just numbers. Gave a talk
at Austin Peay – very powerful, eyes glued,
many questions. One woman stated she wanted
to go vegan afterwards; I feel a few more will
come into their own as awesome people. Met one
dude at Austin Peay who went vegan as a result
of a leaflet last semester. At State, Mara spoke
to a group of four students for a very long
time; they said they wanted to go veg. Victoria
met two tall athletes who went veg recently.
I offered leaflets to a group of four students
who initially said no; we had a long bro
down and then one stated he wanted to go veg
and two others that they would eat less meat,
kind of amazed me. Very awesome interaction. JB and I visited Raleigh
for a long weekend, kicking it off with leafleting
NC State. The reception was outstanding! We
reached 1,000 students, giving the vegetarians
and vegans we met Guides.
I finally got to meet the legendary
Nikki on this great day of leafleting
North Shore Community College. Nikki’s dad [right] was
kind enough to join us, too! I handed a leaflet
to a 75+ aged woman. She turned around 20 feet
away, walked back to me, and went on to explain
that she has a large family who are all going
vegetarian because they recently learned about
factory farming. She thanked me many times and
took a dozen leaflets to give to her family
members. She came back later in the afternoon
with a friend to make sure that she got a leaflet,
too! Later, an environmental science teacher
took a leaflet and gave me his card so that
I can speak to all of his classes next semester! Jeanie’s first time leafleting
today. As I was reaching down
to pull out my bundles from my tote,
Jeanie was already handing out leaflets. She
was lively and did really great off on her own.
At one point, she was talking with a Christian,
and whipped out the Christian
Vegetarian Association booklets. The woman
got very excited; Jeanie asked her if she would
want to do outreach. She was willing. So looks
like that encounter will yield good things. Laura, who has been housing and
feeding us, joined John and me
at SUNY Albany, and her cooking gave us the
energy to reach over 3,200 students – the biggest
day of college outreach ever in New York!
I spoke at the Boulder (and Beyond)
vegan meetup. The talk went over
well, and the organizer (the amazing
Lisa Shapiro) told me that two people will be
starting Meatless Mondays as a result.
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