NLD and WFAD Stories

I was very pleased with our WFAD event in Athens, GA/UGA. I believe we got a fair amount of credible publicity for farmed animals -- aimed at young people, which is great! Because I was largely working alone, since we don't have a group here, I had to start planning several months in advance writing articles and PSAs and working with a local journalist to increase exposure beyond just my table on campus. I got a few of my vegan friends to help that day with handing out pamphlets. I have attached some pictures we took towards the end. Here's my report:

Reserved an info table at the student center plaza with free Why Vegan literature and a TV/VCR airing PETA's "Meet Your Meat" video continuously from 10 AM to 4 PM Oct 2nd. Handed out 375 copies of Why Vegan and had hundreds of students exposed to the video as they walked by (many stopped to watch a few minutes of it).
Collected names of students interested in vegetarianism/animal rights (got 25 names and have started a listserv/informal network since we don't yet have an animal rights group at this large university)
Got PSAs on local student radio station.
Got a feature article in the Red & Black (student newspaper. Published 10/2) Written by a vegetarian fellow journalism grad student. It promoted key web sites (whyvegan.com and factoryfarming.com)

Got an op-ed article in the Flagpole (it hasn't appeared yet in this weekly entertainment publication, but the editor promises he will get it in...he did put a small blurb about WFAD in the Oct 2nd issue, though). My article is titled "Animal Lovers, Let's Kiss Our Hitmen Goodbye"
Got an op-ed article in the Athens Weekly News online (Oct 2nd) My article is titled "If We are What We Eat, Let's Not Be Chicken"....special focus on all the chicken farms and slaughterhouses in the area.
Got an op-ed article in the new All magazine for youth (in the upcoming issue of this monthly magazine). My article is entitled "Great Minds Think Alike: Have Peace of Mind, not a Piece of Meat."

Painted three large banners with key messages and had them posted around campus that week (and it was a huge football weekend crawling with fans). They listed key websites: factoryfarming.com and whyvegan.com
Got the local dining halls on campus to carry a vegan dish that day -- they advertised it as a vegetable curry dish for Gandhi's birthday and had color signs up.
Increased exposure to college students by mentioning the event and web sites to my class of 300 students and emailing other friends locally.

I also just gave a presentation to 50 people (professors and students) at the Environmental Ethics Certification Program on Oct 14th regarding the ethical issues related to raising and eating other species for food. I handed out Why Vegans and an extensive list of quotes from famous vegetarians. We aired a special 20 minute video clip from Tribe of Heart's new documentary "Peaceable Kingdom." I know it caused a few tears in the room, and at least one of the attendees told me she was going to go vegan after this. It was the first time the Environmental Ethics Program seminar dealt specifically with animal rights, versus just environmental issues. I had been pushing for that, so they ended up asking me to speak.

One of the exciting things about this has been finding a bunch of other people on campus who are also interested in animal rights. We will now start organizing and networking to do a better job marketing animal rights on this campus.

Thanks to you both for your informative web sites, all the Why Vegan pamphlets, and support of grassroots activism!

Sincerely,
Carrie Packwood Freeman
Graduate Student - UGA's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication

My event went well. I passed out all the brochures that were sent to me with the help of a couple of friends. My friend and I converted five people total to become vegetarian, that we know of… Well, hope we do this again next year.
AD, Glendale, AZ 10/16/03

At lunch we also held a group discussion open to anyone to have people give personal experiences and answer any questions. We also played Meet Your Meat. It was a little hectic, but next year I plan to do it again and have it more organized! I'm excited, and I look forward to continuously spreading the awareness.
CC, San Gabriel, CA 10/16/03

I can't thank you enough for the brochures sent to leaflet my school (Kansas City Art Institute, MO) – the day was successful and I was able to hand out about fifty during the day. I would like to hand out the rest soon to other areas of the campus. Hope this helps in some small way...
CM Kansas City, MO 10/16/03

It went very well. Myself and 2 people I met, because of having my school listed, handed out all but 10 of the Why Vegans from the pack you sent and most of the Viva flyers as well. The students were receptive for the most part. We had some good conversations which was very encouraging. No one was rude which was also very encouraging. We even went around and pulled out pamphlets from the trash cans and redistributed them! It was a great event and I look forward to doing it again with my new found vegan friends!
SB, San Diego, CA 10/16/03

I leafleted at the North Carolina School of the Arts this past Tuesday. This was the first time that I have done anything like this and I had no idea what to expect. Of course the idealist in me pictured conversations with non-vegans, maybe even some people wanting to know more but the day was fairly "alright" for me. First I should tell you that the college I attend is incredibly small, a little under 1000 students. We only have one building for general studies, so I passed out about 70 pamphlets there and about 40 more at the exit of the cafeteria. The only people that stopped to talk to me about what I was doing were already vegan or vegetarian. The most rewarding part of the day was seeing pamphlets in people's hands, and hearing students talk about the information and pictures given to them. So I am not sure I converted any more to our side but I am happy to say that I passed on knowledge to many students. Knowledge is power and that's why I made a difference on Tuesday.
EB, Winson-Salem, NC 10/18/03

We finally had our leafleting events here in Nova Scotia (Canada). We distributed the literature to both Dalhousie University (Halifax) and the Mount St Vincent University (Bedford). At Dalhousie, two people of the group stood close to the library and handed about 25 why vegan leaflets out as well as some of the other pamphlets sent in the package. A diversity of people took the info. in a very short period of time (about 20 minutes). At the Mount, the literature was given through tabling events. One person tabled there twice. She had a great time, having many people coming to ask her questions. She had a lot of questions from nutrition students. A girl who stopped by at the end of the event said that she was going to try to stop eating meat! A guy, who is not a vegetarian, after he left, actually came back to the table and thanked the person tabling (Grace) for taking the time to do it! After Grace took her stuff from the table to the car, she realized that she had forgotten to take some signs down, and when she went back to get them, he was there eating a salad – he said he couldn't eat meat after the discussion with Grace! So, I think the events went really well. We could have given out many more why vegan easily. Also, we happened to run short really quickly of Vegan Starter Packs, which people were asking to have. We would love to do this kind of outreach more often, but as you are aware in respect to grassroots organizations, they generally run out of money very easily, and we can't afford to get a lot more Why Vegan.
FB, Halifax, Canada 10/28/03
[Of course, we sent her more pamphlets to use. —Ed]

A colleague and I distributed about 375 Why Vegan leaflets across campus, handing them out in the campus coffee shop and at eating places and leaving some in student lounges. We also distributed everything in the Viva box. Everyone seemed friendly, many were seen reading.
SG, San Diego, CA 10/21/03

I divided the leaflets up between me and a friend. She went inside the student union, and I think she had a good response. I stayed outside and approached people walking around. Unfortunately, I think the heat was not in my favor (it was around 96 degrees outside), and the response was rather poor. After awhile, I packed up my leaflets and took them home. Then on Saturday, there was a farmers' market of sorts outside one of the local Wild Oats, where non-profit groups could sell fundraising items and pass out literature. I took the leaflets there and gave them out at the Animal Defense League of Arizona table, and the response was much better. On the Leafleting Day, another girl from our SETA group gave out literature in the morning. (She just took the literature from our group's store of leaflets – most of which is the same as what came in the leafleting pack.) She reported a very positive response.
SH, Tucson, AZ 10/31/03