Fall 2012 - Vegan Outreach

INSIDE Changing Lives: Every Single Day • Sizzling Summer Distro • Adopt a College Records
Vegan Outreach
News
Fall 2012
Team Vegan 2012 for the Animals • End-of-Year Matching Opportunity • VO’s Ripple Effect
FINANCIAL STATEMENT
FISCAL YEAR
TOTAL REVENUE
2011–2012*
$914,099
TOTAL EXPENSES
$824,246
FY ’11–’12* FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES
AS A PERCENT OF TOTAL EXPENSES
Programs (89%)
Support Services (6%)
Fundraising (5%)
*Based on preliminary data
The Independent Charities Seal of
Excellence is awarded to charities
that have, upon rigorous independent
review, been able to certify, document,
and demonstrate on an annual basis
that they meet the highest standards
of public accountability, program
effectiveness, and cost effectiveness.
Of the 1,000,000 charities operating
in the United States today, fewer than
2,000 have been awarded this Seal.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Matt Ball, Executive Director
Jack Norris, RD, President
Mark Foy
Kevin Gallagher
Anna Lesiecki
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT & PROGRAMS
Anne Green, PhD
DIRECTOR OF OUTREACH
Jon Camp
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION
Bill Duarte
DESIGNER & RESEARCHER
Lauren Panos
ADVISOR
Steve Kaufman, MD
PRIVACY POLICY
Vegan Outreach does not share, sell, or trade
any of our members’ information.
We’d love to hear from you!
Vegan Outreach
POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865
VeganOutreach.org/contact
Front cover photo: © Tommy Alsén | Dreamstime.com
Back cover photos: Brian Grupe (Lauren, COM student); Jon Camp (Brian); Mikael Nielsen (Joe & Clayton)
PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
2 Vegan Outreach News|Fall 2012
©iStockphoto.com/Tsekhmister (duck); © Yuri Arcurs | Dreamstime.com (chick)
Vegan Outreach’s philosophy is that each sentient
individual has a right to his or her body and life.
To that end, we promote living so as to contribute
to as little animal suffering and death as possible,
focusing on “preaching to the convertible” with our
booklets. Since Vegan Outreach’s founding in 1993,
over 19 million booklets have been distributed.
No more animal products for me.
I’m serious!
I got one of these last semester.
It changed my life.
That’s it,
I’m not eating meat again.
Changing Lives
Every. Single. Day.
Welcome to the 2012 edition of Vegan Outreach News!
We’re well into our 10th year of Adopt a College, and
we’re sure you’ll be inspired by these examples of what
we’ve accomplished—together—in the past year!
Every single day, Vegan Outreach’s incredible activists are
handing booklets directly to new people, exposing the
animals’ hidden plight, and convincing more and more
individuals to lead a compassionate life!
Every single day, our efforts together are changing lives…
and changing the world!
Thanks for being a part of this powerful, necessary work!
We couldn’t do it without you!
This flier tipped the scales for me...
I’m going veg right now.
Thank you
for changing my life!
Above, from left: Last fall term at UC Santa Barbara, Nikki hadn’t been on
campus for more than 15 minutes when Connor biked up to let her know
he was going veg because of the booklet she handed him that morning!
At the Warped Tour’s St. Louis stop in July, John Oberg heard Gabby say,
“I got this before and went vegetarian right after!” She then told him that,
I saw a booklet about the cruelties
of factory farming by chance.
It changed my life.
—EP (requesting a Guide)
Top, from left: Jose swore off animal products
after receiving an Even If You Like Meat from
Jon Camp at SUNY Cortland in April! In January
at Chaffey College, Christine told Nikki Benoit a
Compassionate Choices changed her life last fall!
And Brian Grupe reports that, in February at
Fresno City College, he and Jonathan Hussain
met a woman whose “two brothers were vegan,
and she had been thinking about it, but the
leaflet pushed her over the edge. Woohoo!”
This totally broke my heart,
I’m going vegetarian.
since she had accidentally eaten chicken once, she felt she was no longer a
vegetarian. But after John explained how vegetarianism isn’t about purity,
Gabby said she’d go veg from that point on and thanked him for changing
her life! And, as a result of reading an Even If You Like Meat from John in
April, University of Pittsburgh student Katherine went veg on the spot!
Be a Part of Vegan Outreach Every Single Day!
Just as our leafleters are everywhere, Vegan Outreach is all across the
intertubes! We have a daily blog (WhyVeganOutreach.BlogSpot.com)
and weekly enewsletter (VeganOutreach.org/enewsletter) where we
share important stories, interesting links, products and recipes, and
much more! We’re also on Facebook and Twitter!
John Oberg (Fred); Nikki Benoit (MLK parade)
At the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Sen [Holiday] and I reached
over 1,000 students. One girl said previously receiving the Even If You
Like Meat booklet made her roommate go vegetarian. When I offered
her a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating, she said, “Wow!
She’d love this!” A big guy on the wrestling team said,
“I already got one. I found it very eye-opening.”
One girl turned down a leaflet and said, “I got one of those
last semester. It changed my life. I’m a vegetarian now.”
She was excited to get a Guide.
—Fred Tyler (right), 3/22/12
At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade
in Los Angeles, Coby Siegenthaler (above),
Julie Rothman, Steve Erlsten, Jessica
Spain, Robb Curtis, Nikki Benoit, and
Vic Sjodin reached 2,150 people with
Compassionate Choices. Rochelle (left)
decided to go veg on the spot, telling
Nikki, “Why do something you know isn’t
right. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
And the man shown reading a booklet
below later said, “Yeah, we wouldn’t
like being abused and eaten either.”
Double Your Impact!
We know you’re a part of Vegan Outreach
because you want to have the biggest
possible impact for the animals.
From November 1 through December 31,
your donations will be doubled—
dollar for dollar!
Every fully tax-deductible contribution
to Vegan Outreach will change twice
as many lives!
So please enjoy these examples of what
we’ve accomplished together, and please
take advantage of this limited-time
opportunity to double your impact!
After receiving booklets from Nikki Benoit at the College of
the Canyons in May, Roberto Sanchez and Gary Gonzalez (top)
both decided to go veg! At GateWay Community College last
semester, John Oberg met Nikki and Nani (above), who were
both very interested in going veg; and in February, a pair of
Millersville University students (right) let him know they read
Even If You Like Meat and were going veg as a result!
At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
parade in Denver, Lynn [Halpern],
Ann [Swissdorf], and I handed out
650 Compassionate Choices—I had
only three people turn me down!
We all had great conversations with
folks who had no idea animals were
raised so horrifically, and many
asked what they could do to help
the “poor animals.”
—Lisa Shapiro, 1/16/12
I was ordering at Pei Wei yesterday and the man taking my order asked if I am
vegan. He told me that he has been trying to go vegetarian but finds it hard
although he really wants to do it. I whipped a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating
out of my purse and he thanked me and seemed really excited!
Also, a few months ago, I leafleted a guy I went to high school with. He told me
that he had been considering vegetarianism, so I gave him a Guide and had a
short conversation with him. A few weeks ago, he emailed me to tell me that
he has been vegan since Thanksgiving and wants to get involved in leafleting!
—Kirby Mauro, 1/13/12
Jane Smiley sends this photo of students reading some of the Compassionate Choices
booklets she handed out at Cincinnati’s Xavier University in April.
To order VO booklets and other
resources, please visit our catalog
(VeganOutreach.org/catalog).
You’ll find must-read books (Jack
Norris & Virginia Messina’s Vegan
for Life and Matt Ball & Bruce Friedrich’s The Animal Activist’s Handbook),
VO T-shirts, bumper stickers (new sticker above), videos, and more!
Fall 2012|Vegan Outreach News 3
Thought the heat waves across
the country were caused by
global warming? Au contraire!
Jessica [Dadds], Chelsea [Jones], Brandon
[Michael], Bill [Milmoe], and I had a
great time at the Portland Warped stop,
reaching thousands of young people. A
woman [left] told me she and her teenage
daughter had been handed a booklet at
the Orlando Warped stop, and neither she
nor her daughter has eaten meat since.
—Cobie deLespinasse, 8/5/12
Today some of us here in Ottawa
celebrated the birth of our
country with some outreach.
There was an afternoon
concert at Parliament Hill,
and we reached over 1,400 people
with Compassionate Choices!
—Ali Pester, 7/2/12
Ali also leafleted several Warped Tour dates, as did Vic Sjodin; above, they’re carrying
2,700 booklets for the Scranton concert—a mere third of what activists handed out!
Below: Will Peji and Karen James reach concertgoers at the NYC Warped Tour stop.
4 Vegan Outreach News|Fall 2012
Altogether, activists reached 413,168 new people this summer!
Leafleting the Warped Tour was again the highlight! As summarized
by John Oberg, 2012 WT coordinator and Vegan Outreach’s latest hire,
“This summer’s Warped Tour
outreach was some of the best
to date, driven by 140 different
leafleters and nearly 30 hosts
who were willing to provide
a roof over our heads. Vegan
Outreach was joined by the
Humane League and given a
helping hand by members of
FARM and Mercy For Animals,
and we achieved amazing
results. We reached 346,452
concertgoers on a tour that
took us 16,351 miles around
the country. We heard from so
many people who now want to go vegetarian, and many who received
a booklet in previous years and have been veg since.”
Above are John Oberg (left) and Joe Espinosa at the Indianapolis stop, for which Joe made a six-hour round
trip to help reach even more concertgoers! David Coman-Hidy and T also leafleted many of this year’s
Warped Tour shows; John snapped the photo of them at top in Las Vegas. And below
are Jon Camp, Lesley Parker-Rollins, and Pauline Lombardo at the Baltimore stop.
John Oberg (Chicago, Scranton, and SLC WT)
At the Warped Tour stop in Chicago, an amazing crew—Mikael Nielsen (above),
Elizabeth Tampe, Riley Law, Kevin Schneider, Pamela Stelmasek, Jennifer Lynne
Vine, Nathan Shin, Jennifer Ammerman, Vic Sjodin, John Oberg, Kenny Torrella,
Joe Espinosa, Leslie Patterson, Sacha Vizneau-Sweet, and Tyler (a security guard!)—
got booklets into the hands of 14,000 people: one of the biggest totals in VO history!
Vegan Outreach activists and activists from the
Humane League, Mercy For Animals, FARM, Justice
For Animals, Animal Rights Foundation of Florida,
VegWorcester, Compassionate Action for Animals,
SMART, and Vegas Veg, as well as dozens and dozens
of individual volunteers, were on fire all summer,
seeking out concerts, festivals, walkathons, college’s
summer sessions, and any other places they could find interested people.
John reports: “Great saturation at the Houston stop—
almost 90% of the crowd had a seed of compassion
planted in their hands. Such an amazing night of
outreach—including getting a hug from a girl (above,
left) who said, ‘Thank you so much for this. I received
one last year at Warped Tour and have been vegetarian
ever since!’” At the Kansas City show, John met more
of the people who’ve been vegetarian since receiving
one of our booklets at a previous year’s Warped Tour:
Madison (center, proudly wearing “vegetarian” on her
T-shirt!) was handed a life-changing booklet last year;
and Maria (right) has been vegetarian for two years!
Congratulations to the amazing activists
burning it up for the animals—and all
the donors who print and ship
these booklets! Because of
your efforts and generosity,
lives are changing every day,
with requests for VO’s Guide to CrueltyFree Eating just pouring in via texts,
voicemails, and online messages!
Left: Lorena Mucke snapped this photo of her son Chris
with Nathan Shin at the Warped Tour’s Atlanta stop.
Here’s just a tiny sample of the feedback submitted via VO’s online Guide request form:
I went to Warped Tour 2012 this weekend, and I’ve decided to become a full vegan! I think your
Guide will help me out as a beginner, and show my family why I’m doing this.—RD ● Warped
Tour 2011 handed out your booklets and it really moved me, so I thought about it for a bit and
I’m finally choosing a vegan diet.—ST ● I was at Warped Tour and someone handed me one
[of your booklets] and I read about it and now I’m working on being a vegan!—MH ● Because
of your booklet, my family and I will not eat meat. Would like to know how to go about getting
booklets to hand out.—MM ● At the Warped Tour, I realized how bad the animals are treated.
I didn’t want to be a part of it because it’s wrong, because animals suffer so much every day.—RT
Right: John caught these concertgoers riveted to a
Warped Tour Why Vegan? booklet at the Salt Lake City
show. Below, from left: At the Las Cruces Warped stop,
Emily told John she’s been veg since getting a booklet
at last year’s show; and her friend Melissa, who was
very interested after hearing about it, promised to
read one, too! And, after receiving booklets from John
at the Denver concert, former vegetarians Jamie and
Allesandra said they would try going veg again!
Above are Katherine, Julia, Lisa, and Jessica at the Warped Tour stop outside Boston.
All were excited to order a Guide—and Jessica told John she’s going veg right away!
Only took a short time to reach 200 students
at Florida International University. Robert
was really happy to get the literature. He
took my contact info and we talked about
him getting involved. Also spoke to Bianca
and Victor [right] and they said that they
love animals. They also took my contact info
because we spoke about the possibility of
them starting a club—maybe with Robert!
—Linda Bower, 7/5/12
At the San Luis Obispo farmers’ market, Erika [Satkoski]
and I had so many great interactions with people
who were seriously considering veg* ism that it gave
me renewed hope for spreading veganism in this area.
After talking to me, one mother said to her kids,
“I think we should go vegetarian.” One guy came back
to our table and said that he
thinks we pushed him over the edge to try being vegan.
And a sweet young woman [above] told us she’s been veg
for one and a half years after getting a Compassionate
Choices at her high school in Castro Valley, CA.
—Barbara Bear, 6/28/12
At an Arroyo Grande festival in May, Barbara also met Lexi
(right), who has been veg since getting a Compassionate Choices at Warped Tour 2011!
In June, David Coman-Hidy (below) and fellow activists kicked off Warped Tour 2012
by reaching 9,000 concertgoers at the Salt Lake City stop!
Fall 2012|Vegan Outreach News 5
Of my three outings
yesterday, Long Beach
City College was the
highlight. Steve [Erlsten],
Julie [Rothman], and I
set a new record: 1,950!
Met [Ashley, above] who’s
been vegan six years cuz
of a booklet she got at
Laney College in Oakland!
Then, Denise [right] went
vegetarian on the spot
thanks to a booklet!
Today at the College of the Desert, I was joined by a
student who was sickened by the booklet and inspired
to help leaflet. I was also joined by Brittney [Montana,
below], who went vegan a year ago after I handed her
a booklet, and was making her leafleting debut today.
Earlier, while I was leafleting at Mt. San Jacinto, I had
a great conversation with someone who wanted more
booklets for her posse. While chatting, my 20-year-old
omnivorous niece in Boston was texting me about
the benefits of eating vegan, asking for resources.
Folks: this is what evolution smells like.
—Nikki Benoit, 2/7/12
Great day at Morgan State University, where we
reached a record 2,100 students. One student said she
ate a vegetarian lunch because of us, and another said
he was going to cut back his meat intake dramatically.
Another great experience today at the University
of Delaware, where we reached 2,500 more students.
Met a ton of vegetarians/vegans. As one student took
a leaflet, she said, “I’ve heard a bunch of people talking
about this today.” That’s one of the great things about
leafleting en masse: you completely raise the issue and
spark a conversation throughout the campus.
—Kate St. John and Aaron Ross, 2/22/12
At Towson University last
fall, Kate and Aaron handed
out a record 2,000 booklets
and met three students
who went veg as a result
of receiving a VO booklet
the previous term—two
of whom, including Shana
(right), are now vegan!
6 Vegan Outreach News|Fall 2012
Records? Pshaw!
In the fall of 2003, Vegan Outreach officially launched the Adopt a
College program, to reach the best demographic with our compelling,
actionable booklets. That term, 22,217 students received a booklet
at 63 different schools.
Working together, leafleters and donors have steadily expanded the
program, with Adopt a College activists setting a huge new record
during the 2010 –11 school year.
But that didn’t last long! Fall 2011 saw an absolutely amazing record:
881,191 students handed a booklet at 918 schools.
I was handed a booklet
on campus, and I have
now been a vegetarian
for almost three months.
I’m planning on making
this a lifelong decision!
—CG (requesting a Guide)
Then, spring 2012 topped even that
incredible record, with 899,003 students
learning the truth at 1,017 schools!
In February, Tamara Hubbard, Victoria
Randall, and Vic Sjodin reached a record
2,000+ University of New Mexico students!
Vic reports: “One girl [above] came back and
said she read the whole thing, it made her
cry, and she is going vegan. Another male
student said that he was going vegan.”
These records were set because of you and
your past financial support! The synergy
of donors and leafleters is the only way
this necessary work gets done—and
together, we’ve changed so many lives.
We’re now in our tenth year of this powerful, effective, and necessary
program. Because of you, in every state,
dedicated activists are taking the animals’
I received a booklet at
plight directly to new people, typically
my community college
reaching thousands every single day!
With your help, the tenth year will be
the best year yet!
You can follow this semester’s progress
at AdoptaCollege.org
on Tuesday, and I have
decided that I want to
help reduce animals’
suffering by going vegan.
—DJ (requesting a Guide)
With help from Logan Narcomey, Victoria
and Vic reached another record 2,000+
students in March at the University of
Oklahoma, where Vic met a student (above)
who went veg after getting a booklet on
campus three years ago! Vic also snapped
a pic of Crystal Gordon (top) on a recordsetting day last fall at Central Michigan
University, and Victoria (top of opposite
page) at Sam Houston State University,
where they set yet another record in April!
Epic day of outreach! At the University of Minnesota, Fred Tyler, Jeff Johnson, Jenna
Cameron, Derek Ritchison, Ben Collins, Ben Bockover, and I set an all-time record for the
amount of leaflets given out at a college campus, anywhere in the country. Collectively,
we distributed 7,600 Vegan Outreach booklets and heard many students
say how impacted they were, including Dan [right], who was handed
a booklet last semester and has since reduced the amount of meat
he eats for the very reasons listed in the booklet. Great day!
—John Oberg, 9/4/12
Another jaw-dropping record: John handed out 5,188 Even If You Like Meat
booklets and 41 Guides—the most students ever reached in a day by one person!
Leafleting Leaders: Fall 2011 – Spring 2012 School Year
NAME
STATE
SCHOOLS
BOOKLETS
NAME
STATE
SCHOOLS
BOOKLETS
The Humane League
Nikki Benoit
Mercy For Animals
Brian Grupe
Jon Camp
Vic Sjodin
Rick Hershey
Volunteer
Joe Espinosa
Caleb Wheeldon
Katie Pryor
John Oberg
Jeni Haines
Mara Collopy
Jeff Boghosian
Lana Smithson
Rob Gilbride
Victoria Randall
Fred Tyler
Leslie Patterson
Dawn Ratcliffe
Yvonne LeGrice
PA
CA
IL
CA
MD
PA
MO
NY
IL
WA
NY
AZ
CA
NJ
FL
ME
NC
TN
MN
IL
FL
CA
124
103
127
104
124
162
52
124
40
89
73
49
65
69
75
47
34
53
55
33
67
18
179,925
150,890
144,512
92,594
81,284
80,938
72,275
61,535
59,335
54,914
52,616
47,076
39,797
35,844
32,336
30,731
30,216
30,141
28,281
25,630
25,621
21,139
Karen James
Sen Holiday
Lisa Hines
Diane Gandee Sorbi
Justice For Animals
Brandon Becker
CAA (Compassionate Action for Animals)
Nettie Schwager
Mieke Vermeersch
Yuri Mitzkewich
Cobie deLespinasse
Katie Cantrell
Leslie Goldberg
John Sakars
Animal Compassion in Action
Moran Bluestein
Lori Atkinson
Kirby Mauro
Vegas Veg
Star Sevadar
Anthony Policano
Crystal Gordon
CT
MN
NJ
CA
IL
NC
MN
OR
TX
FL
OR
CA
CA
ON
NM
TX
CA
AZ
NV
CA
NJ
WA
22
33
33
12
19
11
9
12
23
12
14
16
14
6
2
17
9
8
2
1
11
10
20,161
17,886
13,787
13,400
11,804
11,408
9,550
8,412
8,035
7,152
5,847
5,719
5,655
5,334
5,285
5,091
5,066
4,921
4,843
4,795
4,471
4,348
Students Handed a Booklet: Fall 2003 – Spring 2012
Cold but record day at Queensborough Community
College, where Lisa
[Drapkin], Lisa [Hines],
and I reached 1,563 more
students. Many thanked
us for being there. Also
met Emily [right], who
received a booklet from
us four months ago and has been vegan ever since!
This made our Valentine’s Day.
—Katie Pryor (above, leafleting York College), 2/14/12
John and I reached over 1,700 students at SUNY Cobleskill,
SUNY Oneonta (where we set a huge new record),
and Hartwick College. I ran into [Shorna, above, left],
who got a booklet when Vic [Sjodin] was last in town
and has been almost exclusively vegetarian since.
John ran into Curran [above, right], who said getting
the booklet today turned her into a vegetarian.
—Jon Camp, 4/18/12
8,000,000
On their four-week tour
of NY and NJ, Jon and John
Oberg reached 41,718
students at 30 schools—
and set new records for
18 of those campuses!
At SUNY Oswego—where they doubled the last record!—
Tyler (above) pledged to try veg for a month after getting
a Guide. And at the City College of San Francisco, Diane
Gandee Sorbi, Danielle Smith, Rashmi Abeysekera, Brian
Grupe, and Kitty Jones (below), along with debut leafleter
Ashley Runingen, also more than doubled a campus record
when they reached more than 4,600 students in August!
7,000,000
6,000,000
5,000,000
4,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
2003–2004
2004–2005
2005–2006
2006–2007
School-Year Totals
2007–2008
2008–2009
2009–2010
2010–2011
2011–2012
Cumulative School-Year Totals
Grand Totals: August 25, 2003 – September 28, 2012
Schools Leafleted
2,258
Students Handed a Booklet
7,984,701
Fall 2012|Vegan Outreach News 7
Southern Polytechnic State was only
my third time leafleting and my first
solo venture. I must admit I was pretty
nervous pulling into the parking lot.
But one student, after looking over the
booklet, sent me to a better leafleting
spot, and I was quickly able to set a
record for the school. The take rate was
really high and students were pleasant;
I only wish I had brought more! I can’t
wait to get out there on my own again!
The family that Team Vegans together (above, from left):
Max Caplan, Audrey Caplan, Laura Hart, and Dennis Caplan.
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.
—Team Vegan member Laura Adkins (above), 3/21/12
Team Vegan 2012
—Team Vegan member Nettie Schwager, 4/24/12
At the University of North Carolina today, the 1,200+ students
I reached were much more receptive than any time in 2011.
I heard from many vegetarians and at least five vegans.
I could have given out more Guides but ran out after 12.
Great conversations as well, including one faculty member.
I also got booklets into the hands of an assistant director
of dining services and an assistant director of career services.
Why are Vegan Outreach’s amazing leafleters
able to reach record numbers of people?
Because Vegan Outreach’s
thoughtful donors—dedicated
to striking at the root of animal
exploitation—always step up
in a big way!
—Team Vegan member Brandon Becker, 1/26/12
Amazing amount of interest at Kean University. A number of
students were right at the tipping point and are now on their
way to veg. Also met a freshman who was vegetarian for a
couple of months but let her family scare her into thinking that
she would lose weight and become unhealthy. I empowered
her with enough information to be able to call them on their
bullsh* t. Handed out a total of 22 Guides!
—Team Vegan member Lisa Hines, 3/14/12
At the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, more students than
ever expressed support for our work. One of the many vegetarians
I met stated that getting the booklet from me last semester is
what moved her to stop eating animals.
Team Vegan’s Emily and Brian
John, Fany, Steve & Steve, Nick, Anna, Kathryn, Brian & Brian
teamed up to create matching challenges and multiply the
money raised. All told, Team Vegan 2012 brought in a record
$250,000+ for the animals, and because of the Team’s efforts,
fall leafleting is currently
going great guns!
You can learn more about
these incredible people
at TeamVegan.biz
—Team Vegan member Joe Espinosa, 2/14/12
Below: Team Vegan’s John Oberg enjoys a bit of downtime with
Clint before hitting the road to leaflet
Warped Tour 2012.
8 Vegan Outreach News|Fall 2012
Team Vegan 2012 was the best
yet, with over 100 members
taking part—by running, babysitting, leafleting, and otherwise
getting active for the animals.
Left, from top: Laura Bruess,
Melody Hodges, Jeff Boghosian,
Lesley Parker-Rollins, Carolyn
Harris, and Vic Sjodin. And at
right is Todd Lee, who raised
funds for the Team by hiking
the Pacific Crest Trail!
Within an hour at Moraine Valley
Community College, two separate people
came up who were interested in going
vegetarian. Another student asked about
going veg and getting active for animals.
Later on, a student told me she had seen
the booklet in class and was considering
making changes. An instructor told me he
was using the booklet as an example in his
persuasive writing class. Then a very muscular student told me he was vegetarian.
—Team Vegan member Leslie Patterson (above), 3/21/12
© Catalin Petolea | Dreamstime.com (chickens); Jovan Jimenez (Leslie)
for the Animals!
Above are Steve Sprang and Lauren Farnsworth right before
running the 5K portion of the San Francisco marathon in July.
Reached over 1,000 students during our great outreach at
Yale today. Two separate groups of friends pledged to support
each other; gave them all a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating.
Two guys were so horrified by what they saw, they were almost
going to get sick. One guy had to close his eyes and stay still
for a few minutes. His mother is a vegan of 30 years, and now
he understands. He and his friend pledged to start by cutting
animal products out of their meals asap!
—Team Vegan member Karen James, 4/6/12
Gloria [Lloyd] and I had a great day at Duke.
One student said she was learning about this in
class. Also spoke to a student who went vegan
because of a leaflet he received last year!
—Team Vegan member Rob Gilbride, 4/4/12
Right, from top: Ciera
(photo courtesy of
Team Vegan’s Heather
Leughmyer), Darren Roth,
Caroline Jones, Sherlock,
and Brian Grupe.
At City College of San Francisco, [fellow Team Vegan member
Jon Bockman and I] were joined by an enthusiastic volunteer,
Danielle [Smith] (courtesy of Brian [Grupe, also of Team Vegan]).
Great busy leafleting the whole time—lots of vegetarians
and vegans, lots of good conversations! We reached nearly
1,700 students, and handed out at least 15 Guides, and could
have used more if we didn’t run out.
—Team Vegan member Darina Smith, 2/16/12
While reaching 400 students at the University of British Columbia,
I met one student who said it was a Vegan Outreach booklet
that got her to go vegan!
—Team Vegan member John Sakars, 1/12/12
Sporting their Team Vegan shirts below are some of the dedicated
activists who made sure 13,000+ Warped Tour fans received our
booklets at the Pomona stop (from left): Estela Sanchez, Norma
Sanchez, Yvonne LeGrice, and (in front) Nikki Benoit.
Rob [Gilbride, at left with Syba] and I decided to put
our newly matching Team Vegan shirts to use and
leaflet the local dog walk fundraiser. Very warm
receptions with quite a few high school/collegeaged walkers. Awesome use of only 25 minutes.
Got lots of comments on the shirts about
town after leafleting as well!
—Team Vegan member
Eleni Vlachos (above), 6/2/12
Fall 2012|Vegan Outreach News 9
I would like to thank you for opening my eyes to the horrifying things
happening to animals behind our backs. I’m 13 years old and now I’m living
a life of cruelty-free eating. I was horrified at the stories told in these booklets!
Now’s Your Chance!
When I turned veg, I thought doors would close, but actually they opened.…
My goal is to spread the word and make people understand that animals are
dying each day and we can save them. So I promise to help you with your cause,
to raise awareness and open other people’s eyes like you did mine.
—MM (letter from Ferris, TX)
1
4
7
2
5
8
3
6
9
Caleb Wheeldon (Josh); Brian Grupe (BCC student); Jon Camp (Samantha); Nikki Benoit (Daniel, Lenka)
Again, I thank you for showing me a new world!
VO in México!
Thanks to Drew’s amazing generosity,
Vic Sjodin and Jeni Haines were able to
leaflet in Mexico with Israel Arriola of
Anima Naturalis. During their 10-day tour
in February, a total of 13,000+ Vegan
Outreach booklets were distributed, with
more than 10,000 students at 9 schools
receiving a ¿Por qué vegetariano? booklet!
A few days in, Vic wrote: “Mind-blowing
to walk around after the class change and
see so many reading.… In four years of
leafleting at over 350 schools, I have never
seen such a reception to the leaflets.”
All five students shown above said they
were going veg as a result of our booklet!
Above are more of the students who expressed interest in going veg!
Adriel Escoto (left) also spoke with Israel about getting
involved—then helped leaflet on the spot,
reaching 250 of his classmates!
Because of the dedication of our donors and leafleters, more than 8 million
students have been handed a Vegan Outreach booklet, at campuses across
the United States—and in Canada, Mexico, and other countries! Once you
add in outreach at concerts, festivals, and other venues, over 12 million
young people have been handed one of VO’s powerful and proven booklets.
Fall 2013 marks the tenth anniversary
of Adopt a College’s life-changing and
life-saving advocacy for the animals—
a decade of efficient, effective outreach
to students across North America!
10
Today, your support will determine how
many new people we reach in 2013—
and how many new vegetarians there are!
Together, we can make it the best year yet!
10 more young people whose lives have been changed by your donations:
Right: A student reads ¿Por qué vegetariano?
on UNAM’s campus in Mexico City. To view more
of Vic’s photos and read his and Jeni’s leafleting
reports, visit VeganOutreach.org/mexico2012
10 Vegan Outreach News|Fall 2012
1 Angelica is now working toward
vegan after getting a booklet from
Casey at the Bronx’s Fordham Plaza;
2 Josh went vegan three years ago
when he got a booklet at Boise State;
3 a Plymouth State student who
told Lana Smithson she went veg as
a result of a VO booklet; 4 Lauren
was overjoyed to see Brian Grupe at
Humboldt State because she went
veg as a result of getting a booklet
from him last year at Canada College,
over 300 miles south; 5 a Berkeley
City College student who’s been
veg since getting a booklet from
Jack Norris last September; 6 Jabril
got a booklet from John Oberg at
Virginia State and said he’s going
veg because of how they treat the
animals; 7 Albana stopped eating
meat two years ago after getting a
booklet from Karen James at UConn;
8 Samantha has been veg since
Nina Gonzalez, Mara Collopy, and
Vic Sjodin leafleted U Pitt last fall;
9 Daniel also went veg last fall after
he got a booklet at Cal Poly Pomona;
and 10 Lenka has been vegan since
the day she received a Why Vegan?
in Tucson—10 years ago!
I just got your fantastic booklet from a young man at school today.
What was contained within shocked and disturbed me, and really opened my eyes.
Thanks a lot—you’re really reaching out to stomp ignorance.
—ES
© Tsekhmister | Dreamstime.com (pigs); © iStockphoto.com/Soleg (chickens)
While leafleting on Thursday, I met a young woman
[right] who got a booklet at Brooklyn College about
five years ago. She is now vegan and a high school
science teacher.
On Saturday, Ruton [Kumar] from Bangladesh
stopped to help, which was great. Three new people
[above] said they are going veg now, and at least
half a dozen others mentioned planning to cut back
on animal products and wanting to learn more.
—Casey, 7/1/12
Left: Karen James met
Kylee (wearing black shirt)
at Western Connecticut
State University in March.
Having gone vegetarian
in fall 2007 as a result of
a VO booklet, she’s now
working toward vegan—
and the other students
shown said they’d cut
their consumption of
animal products in half!
Your Donation Doubled
Dollar for Dollar!
A group of your fellow thoughtful donors,
dedicated to helping Vegan Outreach
activists break even more records, have
combined their resources to create an
end-of-year matching pool.
That’s right—these donors want
to make your contribution go
twice as far for the animals!
So please give by December 31
and your fully tax-deductible
donation will reach twice as
many new people with the
animals’ message.
Unaware of the cruelties of factory farming before reading
Even If You Like Meat, CNU students Zack and Casey (top)
came back to tell John they were very moved by the booklet.
And after Brian handed booklets to the Laney College students
shown above, both pledged to go vegan on the spot!
You can donate securely at
VeganOutreach.org/donate
or mail your donation to the
address on page 2. Thank you!
Your donation =
more booklets =
more vegetarians =
more animals saved!
Nine of us reached 2,440 more people at Phoenix’s Art Walk! Several people
said, “Your booklets already made me veg!” Another couple wanted to start
leafleting with us. Michael [Giglio] joined us for the first time. He recently went
veg after having to re-roof a factory farm for work. He said the things he saw
were so traumatic he had to take the rest of the day off and instantly went veg.
—Rachael Plotts, 1/6/12
Too many good conversations to relate from
Georgia Southern University! One woman said
she’s definitely going to go veg after a short
conversation; two women said they couldn’t eat
meat anymore after reading the Compassionate
Choices. Four more people on different occasions
told me that they read the entire booklet and
wanted more info.
—Jeff Boghosian, 4/23/12
These are six of the students who pledged to go veg
when Rachael, Jeff, Christine Wier (who took these pics),
and 17 other amazing activists held a leafleting event
at ASU Tempe last fall! Soon after, Jeff relocated and
came on board as VO’s coordinator for the Southeast!
I’m so thankful I got the booklet at my college. After I read this (and cried
for a few days), I immediately swore off meat and eggs. I just had no idea about
these atrocities. Now I want to show others. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
—JS (donating and ordering booklets)
Fall 2012|Vegan Outreach News 11
Shocked by the VO booklet John Oberg
handed her at SUNY Cortland, Vivi said
she wants to get involved in exposing
the plight of farmed animals when she
moves back to her native France!
Nikki reports from Irvine Valley College:
“Cynthia got a booklet two years ago
at OCC—vegan on the spot.
She veganized her boyfriend
AND his parental units.”
Reporting 1,400+ students reached at UIUC, Joe Espinosa (above,
left) writes: “[This is the school] where 20 years ago Matt Ball and
Anne Green created the machine currently known as ‘The Help Stop
Violence Guy,’ but changing formats into ‘The Help Stop Slavery
Guy,’ a much more compelling tag line as it turns out. Clayton [Carr,
above] joined me for a few hours and did strong work on his half
of the quad. We met this past summer at Pitchfork Music Festival…
found out he became vegan after getting a booklet from me a few
years ago. He offered to help leaflet, and the rest is UIUC history!”
And, at Chicago VeganMania, Jaime Hecht met Tracy Patton (above),
who went vegan and got into activism as a result of the Why Vegan?
she received from Joe on the UIC campus nearly 11 years ago!
We saw a good example of VO’s ripple effect: At the University of Texas–Pan American—
After receiving an Even If You Like Meat
from Kitty Jones at Diablo Valley College,
Lauren Talbert was inspired to leaflet
75 fellow students on campus!
where Victoria [Randall], Teresa [Hernandez], Travis [Burns], and I reached over 3,800 students today—
one girl mentioned getting a booklet last year from Jon [Camp] and going vegan. She then got her friend
to go vegan, and they continue to affect their family and others. From this one booklet, many can go veg!
—Vic Sjodin, 3/28/12
This College of Marin student received a
VO booklet on campus three years ago—
both he and his girlfriend have been
vegetarian ever since!
Nikki Benoit reports: “At Irvine Valley College, Amir [Mirzaei]
comes back to me with the booklet saying, ‘What do I do
to help?’ I say, ‘Help me leaflet.’ He says, ‘OK. What else?’
I say, ‘Stop eating the animals and their parts.’ ‘Of course,
that’s done as of the second I glanced through that
booklet. This is disgusting. And horrible.’
And he’s a natural leafleter! He’ll be joining
me at many more colleges going forward.”
Brian Ornduff went vegetarian after
receiving a VO booklet at WVU in 2007;
since then, he not only leaflets for AAC,
but also incorporates animal issues into
his stand-up comedy routines!
Absolutely fantastic acceptance rate at Bakersfield High School and Bakersfield College.
At the college, a guy stopped to tell me that he had gone vegetarian after getting a booklet from us at
the Warped Tour a few years ago. He now has a two-year-old daughter and she has never eaten meat!
Two lives changed from one booklet!
—Brian Grupe, 2/6/12
David Coman-Hidy reports: “Amazing day
at UMass Amherst: 3,400 leaflets out!
Jan got a leaflet five years ago and went
vegan that day—she used her break
from work in the library to help us leaflet!”
Mario Gutierrez went veg on the spot
after receiving a Compassionate
Choices from Nikki at
Santa Monica College;
then he jumped right
in to help get booklets
into the hands of
some classmates!
Since receiving a Compassionate Choices
from Barbara Bear at the Arroyo Grande
farmers’ market, Lillia Silva has been
“pretty much vegan,” and her husband
is following her down the vegan path!
Brian Grupe reports: “At Merced College,
I met Mariah [De La Paz], who wanted to
get involved. I asked her if she had time
to help and she did! Turns out she used to
be veg and now feels inspired to go back!”
Yuri [Mitzkewich] and I reached over 2,300 students at Florida International University.
One woman told me she had gotten a booklet in Gainesville a long time ago, and both she and her husband
went vegetarian because of it—two people from one booklet!
—Lana Smithson, 2/6/12
In March 2011, Rob Ert let Nikki know he went veg because of the
VO booklet he received at El Camino College
the previous semester. She gave him a
Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating and a hug,
and they parted ways. Fast-forward to
May 2012: Rob not only helped Nikki
leaflet ECC, but also invited her to
speak to the campus group that
he formed; their meeting had a
vegan theme, and nearly all of
the members were already veg!
Please see VeganOutreach.org/feedback for more activists’ reports about the life-changing ripple effects generated by your donations!
At the University of Nevada in Reno,
Brian learned that this woman went veg
because of the VO booklet she received
on campus last fall—and her boyfriend
has cut his meat intake in half!
Nikki met Yasina at the Grove in LA:
“The last woman I leafleted went
VEGAN ON THE SPOT! She’s a single mom
with two kids, who—of course—
will be vegan now too. Hip hip!”