[419] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
MeatOut success
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (elsiedee@MIT.EDU)
Tue Mar 21 08:30:15 1995
To: vsg-announce@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 95 08:29:42
From: elsiedee@MIT.EDU
Well, it's over. It was an incredible success; we owe a lot of people a lot
of thanks for this.
The booth was quite an impressive display (if I do say so myself). For
those of you not at MIT, booths are held in the main commuting corridor of
the Institute, the "Infinite Corridor". Richard S. kindly rented some A/V
equipment for us at the last minute, so we had _Diet for a New America_
with John Robbins and _Diet for all Reasons_ with Dr. Michael Klaper
alternately playing all day on a big TV. We had a shopping cart filled with
veggie items from Laverde's grocery store and the Harvest Co-op. The big
"Great American Meatout" banner was draped in front of the booth. We had
already collected ~30 signatures from the Mar. 2 booth, so I made up a
sheet of drop paper that said "I pledged!" and listed everybody's names. We
had a vegetarian four food groups poster and a vegetarian pyramid poster.
The booth itself was well-stocked with information on practically every
aspect of veg'ism. (We have MIT Medical to thank for use of their copy
machine.) We also gave out free oatmeal raisin cookies (no dairy or eggs,
sweetened w/maple syrup) and free hummus and pita. More than 200 people
stopped by the booth before 1 p.m. alone (because the cookies were gone by
that time and we had made at least that many).
The dinner was also a huge success. We served more than 200 people
delicious, free vegetarian Indian food. Lots of MIT people were there, and
quite a few non-MIT people, too. Thanks to the MIT Bhakti Yoga Club and
members of VSG who showed up to help.
The lecture by Alex Pacheco was inspiring and affecting. It was preceded by
a dramatic group "The Creature Features" who put on an excellent
performance. Alex was presented with the Courage of Conscience Award by
Louis Rwanda (sp?) of the Peace Abbey. The event was publicized by Evelyn
Kimber of the Boston Vegetarian Society, so there were many non-MIT people
in the audience.
Thanks to everyone who helped out for making it a big success. Now I need
to start thinking like a student again. ;)
Laura
