Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Member Update, June 30

Cathy Berlot is this year's winner of the highly coveted “Crazy Cat Lady Trophy”. Read her winning entry, and see the crazy cat lady action figure here: http://www.fur-ever-friends.org/events.html

Todd Lee (Jhakarin Leelhasuwan) writes:
My marathon training is going well. The schedule that Dan Kuzma made for me has been more than helpful, in terms of frequency, length and challenge. If everything holds up, and I remain injury free (crosses fingers), I can confidently say that this will be the best prepared I've ever been for a marathon.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Member Update, June 26

Patrick Broderick goes abroad:

I ended up leaving for my study abroad in Mexico earlier than expected. So I find myself in a society a little less acquainted with the movement for animal rights and reliant on a host family for meals.  

Luckily, I have a pretty understanding family.  They've made changes to the meals they serve me so that they are free of meat and obvious dairy and egg products.  I don't want to create an unreasonable amount of work for people nice enough to let me into their home.  This is not just an exchange of calories -- it's a cultural exchange as well, not to mention a particularly delicate cultural exchange between a thriving developed country with more options (the United States) and a developing nation with fewer options (Mexico).  

I also think the essential message to send in this exchange is that there are US citizens very willing to eat with a Mexican family, enjoying their cuisine, while maintaining a different perspective on meat consumption. "Not every American eats nothing but hamburgers," in combination with, "There are some Americans that wish to respectfully share in your food culture," are the two major messages I wish to send on this study abroad trip.  

So I guess my message is to vegans who travel abroad from rich countries such as Canada, the United States or Western European countries, is yes, continue being a vegan, but if you find yourself particularly integrated in the culture (such as staying with a host family), just do your best within the context of a respectful cultural exchange.  In this particular form of globalized economy, so many cultural ideas are forced.  Vegans can be different -- we can be those foreigners who come to our host country with an interesting (hopefully intriguing) idea and do it in a refreshingly respectful manner.  Sounds fair, right?

Friday, June 25, 2010

Member Update, June 25

Jim Hillman
Jim has logged over 617 miles so far in his 18-week marathon training program.  He's running the San Francisco marathon in a month - and promises to send photos of himself at the finish line!

Wendy Welsh
Wendy will soon be moving to Panama, where she's sure to read more books and take more lovely photos. Take a look at That Swimming Lizard.


Send your update to Anne (at) veganoutreach (dot) org. Thanks!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Message from Anne

Hi Team,

Joanna is one of the donors who helped extend the Team Vegan matching. She wanted to relay this message to all of you:

I am enormously pleased to be able to contribute to your amazing fundraising for Vegan Outreach, and I am very grateful for your tremendous efforts on behalf of the animals.

If you could take a minute and send me a thank you for Joanna, I'll compile them and send them on to her. Let's make the deadline Sunday, 27 June.

Thanks so much!
Anne
anne (at) veganoutreach (dot) org

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Please Help Folks Reach Goal!

All Team Vegan members who raise at least $500 for Vegan Outreach by midnight are eligible for a Team Vegan shirt.

If you'd like to help – and have your donation doubled, dollar-for-dollar – members of the Team who are close to $500 include:

Dan Holbert
Ann Parkin
Katie Gray
The Animal Awareness Project

Thanks so much, and happy last day of spring!

And Now for Something Entirely Different

One of the top Team Vegan members (and donors), Catherine Berlot, shares her experience of her recent trip to to the UK:

It’s not hard at all to find great places to eat and stay in the UK that can cater to vegans.  On this trip we stayed in the Highlands of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the Lake District in England.

In the West Highlands, we stayed in Cuildorag House, a vegetarian Bed and Breakfast in Onich, http://www.cuildoraghouse.com/.  This is a great area for hiking.  We enjoyed hiking on Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK, and in the Glencoe area. Cuildorag House is run by Lisa and Iain Glaze, who are friendly and made us feel at home.  In addition to a vegan breakfast, which was basically a vegan version of the traditional British cooked breakfast with tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, and vegan sausage, they offered a vegan dinner, which was great, because there aren’t many if any vegan options in the area.  The dinners were delicious, with lots of the vegetables coming from their garden.  I was particularly impressed with the pea and nettle soup.  We also had a salad with some greens I’d never seen before, a wonderful vegetable stew, and a rhubarb tart for dessert.  Another night we had a root vegetable soup, another great salad, a lentil tart, and a fried banana with a caramel and marmalade sauce.       

In the Lake District, which is also great for hiking, we stayed at the Lancrigg Vegetarian Country House Hotel, in Grasmere, http://lancrigg.co.uk/.  This is a larger establishment than the Cuildorag House and offers lots of amenties, such as Swedish massage, shiatsu, and reiki (non of which we took advantage of), but isn’t as homey because of its size.  The food was great and they also served dinner, which again was very welcome after a long day of hiking, since there aren’t lots of vegan options in this area either.  The vegan items on the dinner menu were clearly marked and there were additional choices that could be veganized.  They had quite a selection.  I especially liked their cashew nut loaf.  They also had several vegan options for dessert, including apple and pear crumble and a decadent chocolate sundae.  The breakfast menu wasn’t as clearly marked and initially it was difficult getting information about what was vegan from the wait staff, primarily college age students from France and other European countries with somewhat limited English. But with some perseverance, we got the information we needed and everything was delicious.  There were lots of choices, including fresh fruit, fruit smoothies, tofu, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches, vegan burgers, and a vegan version of the traditional English breakfast.     

Edinburgh is a very magical Scottish city that we love to visit for its sense of history, architecture, art galleries, and bookstores. This time we stayed at the Claymore Vegetarian Guest House on 68 Pilrig Street. Email: enquirehere@blueyonder.co.uk.  They are working on a web site.  The Claymore is run by Cathy Meek and John McCafferty.  Cathy is a wonderful warm person.  We didn’t meet John, but he cooked great breakfasts, probably the best we had on this trip, which included polenta, potato scones, tomatoes, onions, and mushroom fricassee.  This guest house is a bit away from the center of town, but there is a bus stop right in front of it, so it’s easy to get around.  It pays to get an all day bus pass for 3 pounds.  Another place we enjoyed staying in on a previous visit was the more centrally located Six Mary’s Place Guest House in Stockbridge, http://www.sixmarysplace.co.uk/index.html. They also have nice vegan options for breakfast. Six Mary’s Place is bigger than the Claymore. I preferred the personal friendly treatment we got at the Claymore, but the location of Six Mary’s Place is more convenient. There are quite a few vegan friendly restaurants in Edinburgh, more than we could go to on one visit.  

We had two dinners at the David Bann restaurant, http://davidbann.co.uk/, partly because they are open all day, which was convenient for when we went to the theatre. They have some vegan options and many more items that can be veganized. The food was delicious and the wait staff were extraordinarily helpful.  I was particularly impressed with a watercress, beetroot, and pomegranate salad and with their homemade smokey tofu with udon noodles. We also had dinner at the wonderful Kalpna Vegetarian restaurant, http://www.kalpnarestaurant.com/.  We went to this Indian restaurant many years ago before we were even vegetarians let alone vegans, and it was here that I first learned what vegan meant.  At that time and on this visit, I had the vegan thaali, which is a wonderful sampling of many different dishes.  We also stopped by the Forest CafĂ© on our first morning in the UK for a cup of tea and some flapjacks, sweet bars made with oats, http://www.theforest.org.uk/index.php.  It looks like this place is really hopping at night, but we didn’t see for ourselves on this visit.   

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Shirt Update

Hi Team!

Don’t forget!
You are eligible for a limited edition Team Vegan t-shirt if you have raised $500 for Vegan Outreach by June 20! The deadline is approaching….

If you’ve already made the goal, let me know which style/size you’d like (if you haven’t already).

·         Running jersey (a lightweight sweat-wicking material, most likely. See Sean Hollick’s page for model: http://teamvegan.biz/team/MrHollick); unisex sizing: Small, Medium, Large, XL 

·         OR a cotton t-shirt (much like the t-shirts modeled here, except white, with the Team Vegan design above) unisex sizes only; Small, Medium, Large, XL  http://www.veganoutreach.org/catalog/merchandise.html#shirts

  • If you’d rather have a Vegan Outreach t-shirt instead (see link above), please let me know, and I’ll see what I can do. These will be available as our current stock permits. They are available in ladies cut S, M, L (these run small – if you are a unisex M, order a ladies cut L) and unisex, S, M, L, XL.
 There’s still time!

Go, team, go!

Friday, June 11, 2010

New Goal Bar Is Up

The new goal bar is up, reflecting the potential contributions of new supporters: http://teamvegan.biz/ (Be sure to hit refresh if the bar doesn't load right.)   




Remember, raise $500 by June 20, 2010, and you'll and receive our special Team Vegan t-shirt in your choice of a running jersey or cotton t-shirt!  


Thanks so much to everyone -- your efforts for the animals are incredible!

Monday, June 7, 2010

New Challenge & Great News

The good news just keeps coming!

Impressed by this wonderful team (100+ members) and your incredible fundraising, 3 donors have pooled their resources and pledged an additional $21,500 to extend the matching goal to $96,500! Wow!
The goal bar on the website will be updated shortly.

We now have the potential to put $193,000 to work for animals!  Let's go for it!
Questions? anne@veganoutreach.org

PS: You might be interested in this news.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

You Rock, You Rock, You TOTALLY ROCK!

Yesterday's post was about our ability to make a difference.

And that's what the members of Vegan Outreach do – make a difference!

Check out the Team Vegan page, after only 34 days: over $81k!

We know there is a lot of hard work still to be done, and some folks have some new ideas for the rest of Team Vegan this summer.

But right now, let's just cut to the chase:

You totally rock!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

New Post: Can You Make a Difference?

To save bandwidth, I'll just post the link:

http://whyveganoutreach.blogspot.com/2010/06/can-you-make-difference.html

Thanks to everyone who has been working so hard to make Team Vegan a success, to help all our efforts for the animals!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Darina's Message to Friends and Family

Mega-leafleter and Team Vegan member Darina Smith recently sent a message to her friends and family, and has graciously given permission to repost excerpts; feel free to modify for your own use!

I am taking part in the annual Team Vegan challenge to help animals and the environment. Some people run a marathon or walk for their cause, but I chose an even more relevant activity: a leaflet-a-ton to distribute 5,000 leaflets describing the damage caused by factory farming, and to help people make educated food choices.  
You are invited to support me in this goal. Anyone who respects my dedication to helping animals by peaceful, respectable activism with Vegan Outreach, can show their support by a small tax-deductible donation here.     
A pool of generous donors is double-matching each dollar raised – if you donate $10 (which you won’t even notice missing), you’ve just created $40 to help animals. This multiple matching opportunity will end tomorrow, June 2nd, 2010, but you can support Team Vegan until July 31.

Others have already contributed a total of $1,050 to my page under Team Vegan fundraising. Help me get to $3,000, and get the gratifying feeling of having done something thoughtful today. 
Even if you don’t donate, you are welcome to check out [Vegan Outreach's website] and learn about this movement which, is gaining huge masses of supporters every year.