Happy Vegan Summer!

[Guest guest]

Happy Summer 2009!

 I want to thank Tammy and Chris, founders of Bay Area Vegetarians,

and everyone on the BAV list who has helped make this summer amazing for animals.  I have some

great news to share.

 In the past few months we’ve had monthly Bay Area Veg leafletings,

The PETA Pack, Team Vegan, Maker’s

Faire, monthly KFC demos

and leafletings, Pride,

Vegan Prom, a veggie hot

dog give-away, the annual BAV 4th

of July picnic and many other fabulous outreach

events.  Some of these were strictly BAV events, some were done by

other groups but made much better because of BAV. 

 I don’t know about you, but I think it’s all

paying off!

 Just in the last two weeks I have experienced:

 

Five different people telling

me they went vegan because of a PETA Vegetarian Starter Kit or Vegan

Outreach brochure.

Two total strangers, two separate

times, telling me they went vegan because of Prop 2.

My wonderful aunt telling me

that if I hadn’t been so gentle in my approach (encouraging her to

first try veg one day a week, etc) she never would have gone veg.

At least 20 new people signing

up to leaflet because their lives were changed by leafleting.

A surge in vegan food

everywhere I look.

A surge in positive media about

veganism.

An e-mail from a dear friend

who has always refused to go veg.  He recently read the Veg Starter

Kit I “accidentally” left in his kitchen and now he’s

asking me for vegan recipes and shopping tips.

 

 Yay!  J  Thank you

BAV!

 Leafleting works.  Doesn’t matter if you do it

alone with 10 fliers on your lunch break, or if you join a big crazy wonderful party

like Pride and hand out 18,000 fliers, or if you organize a small vegan food

give-away for an hour on a Saturday.  It

works.  People will go vegan if you politely hand them a

nice-looking, professionally made, effective brochure about how animals suffer

to be made into meat.  To everyone who helped create new vegans this

year:  THANK YOU.  To all of you still watching from the sidelines: 

Get off your computer and come join us! 

 Leafleting is really, really fun.  J 

Thanks to BAV and PETA and Vegan Outreach and EBAA and others...thanks to

activists who have been around for years and the brand new activists...thanks to

all the people in the Bay Area who want to speak out against animal suffering…I

have had a great summer and I’m looking forward to the next few events! 

 It’s been a great time of sharing yummy vegan food and dancing and

running and partying with wonderful friends.  And all this fun has been “work!” 

Work that has created many new vegans and will continue to create new vegans.

 See you at the next event (who wants to help with a vegan

ice cream give-away on a hot August day?)!

Alexp.s. E-mail me if you need any brochures.  

 *Great essay about the rise (and rise) of vegetarianism: http://tinyurl.com/lxmp2b

 *Animal rights in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/opinion/09kristof.html

 *VegNews write up of Vegan Prom: http://vegnewspresspass.blogspot.com/2009/07/starry-starry-night.html

 *Photos of really cute dogs at work for no reason other than it’s

a good way to end this message:

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/06/every_day_is_ta.php