Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • September 19, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
Adopt a College: Reaching Thousands Every Day!Even before schools on the quarter system have started (including the University of California system), Adopt a College activists are hitting so many schools and reaching so many new people that their reports have overwhelmed our poor data entrists! But, as of yesterday, activists have handed booklets directly to 265,576 students already this term – more than a quarter million new people have been reached with a powerful and effective Vegan Outreach booklet – even before the first day of fall! A special congratulations to the Humane League for having handed VO booklets to more than one million people! Jon Camp points out this is equal to what was handed out in the entire first 3.5 years of Adopt a College. Nick, Aaron, Kate, David, Lydia, Nathan, and Kathy have been relentless, as have been Sally, Brian, and VO’s own Vic. Jon notes: “These are folks who truly walk the walk, put the animals first, get out in all weather extremes, travel the country when need be, and do it day after day after day, year after year after year. Millions and millions of animals will have been spared from horrible suffering because of the work of these individuals.” Thanks so much to all the leafleters and donors who are making this possible! Together, we’re changing thousands and thousands of lives!
Report from Jon: Facebook AdsKudos to Jon Camp for the time he’s put into this project. We also greatly appreciate everyone who has helped him out! Thanks to the generous support of a donor and website assistance from the Humane League, Vegan Outreach has launched our first Facebook online ads campaign! We set up ads featuring prominent animal-friendly musicians and actors who are popular amongst today’s youth; these ads show up on the sidebar of teenage and early-20-somethings’ Facebook pages. The ads encourage individuals to watch this video created by Mercy For Animals, which exposes the wretched conditions that farmed animals endure day in and day out in modern factory farms and slaughterhouses. Since starting the ads in early July, over 3,000 individuals have clicked to watch the video. And because of the comments section on the video page, everyone who comments automatically sends the video link to their Facebook friends’ news feed, leading to 30% more individuals watching it. This means that roughly 4,000 individuals have already watched this video, thanks to our ads. By visiting our video page, you’ll see that this method of advocacy generates a lot of positive feedback! By coupling online ads with our proven-effective leafleting efforts, we’ll be winning thousands of hearts and minds this coming fall!
From “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” & Jack Norris RD Blogs
Recipe of the WeekOMG, we at the office LOVE this recipe! Mega-yums! Please submit your nominees for product of the week via this page; previous entries here.
Notes from Our Members
Numerous enthusiastic
recipients
at Pasadena Community College
– animals are popular! Heard from a record
number of vegans on this campus, and they’re
only at 1⁄4 capacity during summer session!
Chatted with Dallas, a former slaughterhouse
worker, who – because of what he learned –
has been vegan for two years. Abhors how these
animals are treated. Is happily on board with
his compassionate alternative lifestyle now.
Yay!
Despite a temperature of 104 and no shade, Ben, Jen, David, and I reached over 4,000 people at the St. Louis Warped Tour stop. I also had one of the most meaningful moments of the tour today. A group of three girls [above] were walking by and I overheard [Gabby, center] say, “I got this before and went vegetarian right after!” I stopped them and asked her if she was still vegetarian. She said no, so I asked why, to which she replied that she accidentally ate chicken once and felt like she was no longer a vegetarian. I explained how vegetarianism wasn’t about purity, I’ve accidentally eaten non-vegan in the past and didn't let it stop me from continuing on with my ethical commitment. She instantly said she would go vegetarian from this point on; she concluded by saying, “Thank you for changing my life!”
Better night at
the Detroit stop, where Nathan, Ben, Jennifer,
David, Italia, Don, Vic, Matt, Karly, Rachael,
Kelly, and I reached over 13,000 rockers!
In Chicago, we also reached over 13,000
new people! Amazing crew – Mikael,
Riley, Elizabeth, Kevin, Pamela, Jennifer, Nathan,
Jennifer, Vic, Kenny, Joe, Leslie, Sacha, and
I were joined by Tyler, a security guard!
I leafleted Oregon State
on July 5, and Cobie joined me today. We had
good conversations, with people interested in
going veg, going back to being veg, taking more
booklets for friends, etc. While talking with
two middle-aged men, one of the big things I
made them realize is that 90% of meat comes
from confined operations. They were under the
impression that about 70% of the animals are
raised free-range and happy. Leafleting da Vinci Days
got better as the weekend went on, with better
acceptance and good conversations. A woman who
teaches at the University of Oregon mentioned
showing her students a documentary about a tribe,
with a scene where a pig is killed to be eaten.
The students were so upset and thought it was
so bad that they killed the pig. It’s really
revealing as to the nature of our disconnection.
What do they think happens to the animals eaten
here? Do they think they die in their sleep?
At Union Square,
I met many who were interested and lots of vegans;
I swapped info with those who wanted to get
involved. Saturday at Times Square was even
better, with two helpers! A number of people
took a booklet on their second time passing
by; others mentioned having seen me and my sign
elsewhere and decided to take a booklet now.
A group of four young ladies [left] remembered getting
a booklet from me at the Gay Pride Parade and
are definitely working towards veg. They were
very thankful. After work last week, I
took up my favorite location at Chicago and
Wabash, where the Chick-fil-A cow was dancing
and high-fiving passersby and wearing a pink
(breast cancer awareness?) vest that said, “Kool
Kidz Eat Chikin.” I squelched the festive
mood, and worked the curious crowd, hearing
from a number of vegetarians. Today, I was able
to reach another 111, along with an interesting
conversation about abortion, suffering, and
numbers.
Jovan and I had amazing leafleting
at State and Madison – distributed
all 300 booklets we had brought in less than
an hour! Good conversations, too. Outreach was great on Boulder’s Pearl Street
Mall, with Kristy, Danny,
Kimito, Hulya, Lynn, and I talking with many
people. Almost every single person that stopped
not only accepted literature, but took multiple
copies, asked for recipes, and were genuinely
interested in going vegan. It was remarkable.
It was a good evening of
outreach for Liz [Tampe, left] and me. One girl told
us that she was not going to buy the hamburger
she had been planning on when she passed us.
Another told us that this was “Sick!”
and that he had no idea that this was how farmed
animals were treated. A lovely lady, who said
she didn’t eat pork or much beef, told me that
she would work on cutting out chicken after
I explained that it takes about 200 chickens
to equal the meat gotten from one cow. Leafleting the Pismo farmers’ market
was beautiful, with most people
accepting a booklet, and others approaching
to ask for copies! My most interesting conversation
was with a guy who said he could never be vegan,
that he knows about the ag industry and that
going vegan is the right thing to do, but he
just knows he could never do it. I said I used
to think the same thing 20 years ago before
I went vegan, but I mostly emphasized that it
isn’t all or nothing – even cutting back results
in less suffering. He smiled and gave me a high
five before he left with a Compassionate
Choices in hand. I think he’s going to
surprise himself and go vegan.
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