Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • August 1, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
Summer Outreach Blazes Ahead!Despite the record heat – or maybe because of it – Vegan Outreach leafleters have been on fire! Since June 1, over 420,000 individuals have personally been handed a VO booklet, opening their eyes to the reality big ag tries to hide. Dozens of leafleters across the country have reached 330,132 concertgoers at 35 stops of the Warped Tour. (If you’re unfamiliar with the Warped Tour, our good friend Harish sent along this article.) Congratulations to all these amazing folks, braving every type of weather (well, except snow) to provide the animals a voice!
From “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” & Jack Norris RD Blogs
Product of the WeekHolly: “Liz Lovely cookies and treats. Everything they make is vegan and organic; they have gluten-free too.”
Notes from Our Members
Robert Kenner was
lecturing at the University
of Maine last week, and I leafleted the huge incoming
crowd so people had something to read while
waiting and something to take away. After the
lecture, I spoke to him briefly and gave him
a leaflet. He thanked me for my work and wished
me luck on raising awareness of the issues.
John took SUNY
Brockport with Tara today; Sarah,
Rosemary, and Danielle joined me at Rochester
Institute of Technology – new records at both
schools! Perfect weather and receptive
crowd at Santa
Barbara’s Earth Day, where Peggy and I were
joined by Robert, and we reached over 1,200
people. I gave a leaflet to Das Williams, a
California State Assembly member, who told me
he will be going veg next week for COK’s veg
week. Woo-hoo! I told him a senator on the East
Coast took the veg pledge for a week and ended
up staying veg. Offered him a Guide,
which he happily accepted to help him get started
on this veg thing. I watched as a mom, dad and
young son (10ish) got a leaflet and the dad
proceeded to the nearest recycling bin to toss
it in. The son was trying to grab it from him
and the mother said, “If he wants to look
at it, let him.” So the dad gave in, the
son perused the first few pages, then walked
up and placed the leaflet in his dad’s bag,
presumably to look into it further later. Yay,
mom! And yay kid for caring! Sen and I reached over
1,200 students at Iowa
State University. Many people thanked us for
being there. One guy said, “I’ve been to
one of those Iowa Select pig farms. They’re
gross. They’re no good.”
Another good day
at Xavier University – students
very receptive. For example, two women enthusiastically
accepted the Compassionate Choices, and one
asked, “Does this have recipes?” “Well,
if you’d like recipes, I’ll give you these,”
and I handed them Guides. The other woman: “Vegan
recipes! Great!” Ben and I reached over
10,000 students on our
tour from Boston to Michigan. In Detroit, Ben
was harassed by a student whose father owns
a huge egg farm where the hens are kept in battery
cages. He then found me for the same tongue-lashing.
After going through the booklet with him, showing
him the sources, and appealing to his reason,
this guy shook my hand, apologized, and said,
“Wow, I guess I have some research to do.”
He then went to find Ben, shake his hand, and
apologize! Reached 1,400 at UC San
Diego. Bumped into
a veg convert from a couple years ago, she’s
doin’ great still, and her ’rents have cut back
their meat intake, too! Ahhh the power of one!
We reached over 1,000 people at the Central
Florida Earth Day festival. Four different groups
of folks told us they were thrilled to have
gotten the booklet previously at the Jane Goodall
event and wanted more information, so we gave
them Guides. Several good conversations that
no doubt have spawned a lot of new vegetarians. Today, Victoria and I reached
2,700 students at the University of Kentucky, 166 at Bluegrass Community College, and 280 at Transylvania
U.
Nice to see people reading the booklet; many
great interactions. One girl got a booklet at
UK, read for several minutes. Then we spoke:
Boom! New vegan! Star leafleter Brittany joined me at the University
of Miami’s main campus. A number of interesting
conversations. For example, a faculty member
who had gotten a leaflet earlier in the morning
returned telling me how she and her husband
had tried becoming vegetarian, but stopped because
of the difficulty in finding satisfying and
interesting food choices. After talking her
through my own vegan meal discoveries and giving
her a Guide plus an HSUS Meat-Free Meals, she
said she was going to give it another try. Good leafleting at Oregon
State, where I quickly
reached nearly 200 students. It was great to
see people sitting around reading the booklets.
Several lengthy conversations, too. I notice
that more and more people are interested in
this issue. It is really getting on the radar.
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