By Vic Sjodin, Director of International Outreach

We’re excited to announce a new college-leafleting record! For the fall 2015 semester, Adopt a College activists have reached 1,174,739 students, busting our previous all-time semester record of 1,098,979.

A record 639 activists participated this semester – that’s 305 more participants than just two years ago! We’re not only affecting students, but also introducing hundreds of caring people to animal advocacy! This semester we also crossed the pond to leaflet in the United Kingdom for the first time.

Leading the charge this semester is Vegan Outreach’s traveling Outreach Coordinator Steven Litrov, who has reached 74,790 students during his first full semester of touring. Way to go Steven!

Close behind is indefatigable Steve Erlsten in Northern California, who has handed a booklet to 73,254 students. Steve is now the fourth most prolific leafleter of all time!

Leading volunteer efforts is John Sakars, who has reached a whopping 57,261 students in Canada, Upstate New York, and the Southeast. Kimberly Moffatt toured the United Kingdom, Southern California, and the Southwest as a volunteer, reaching 37,657 students.

On September 23, we were just 11 booklets shy of reaching 32,000 students with the plight of farm animals in a single day! There were many such monster days of outreach this semester – we reached more than 20,000 students on 15 different days!

Thank you to all who braved the elements and stood on the pavement smiling away while handing out booklets. I hope everyone who is a part of the Vegan Outreach family takes a lot of pride in what we’re accomplishing together. This outstanding semester couldn’t have happened without all of you, especially those who generously donate to make this work possible!

VO Outreach Coordinator Steven Litrov is this semester’s most prolific leafleter, personally handing booklets to 74,790 students at 75 different schools! For three weeks in October, VO intern Jet Sunrise traveled with Steven, leafleting campuses in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In total, Jet has reached 13,370 students at 16 different schools this fall!

Above are Steven (left) and Jet (center) on their record-setting day at Indiana State University, and a student reading one of the 2,600 Your Choice booklets they handed out at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis:

Really great record-breaking day at IUPUI! We had tons of positive interactions, including one with a student named JC, who is trying to eat healthier and was also responsive to the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. Another student, Adam, told us the booklet exposed him to these horrors for the first time; and two athletes couldn’t believe David Carter and other athletes in the booklets were veg. Jet also interacted with a woman from the sustainability council who is veg and interested in getting active.

On September 8, at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, Steven (above, right) teamed with activists from Compassionate Action for Animals:

Together we handed out over 4,500 pieces of pro-veg literature to a responsive student body and had many wonderful interactions with veg*ans and curious students alike. We also came across a student named Caleb [above, left], who went vegan over the summer after receiving a booklet in April! No struggles! Yay!

On December 1, Steven was joined by Emmanuel Marquez, VO’s Mexico Outreach Coordinator:

Today we handed out a record 1,605 booklets at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, TX, and had a ton of questions, interest, and support for the cause. Hemena [above, left], a vegan art appreciation teacher, grabbed some booklets to share with her students; another student recently learned of the environmental impacts of animal agriculture and is cutting back on eating meat; and Leonela [above, right] is ready to go veg after receiving a booklet and chatting with Emmanuel!

There are just nine days left to receive dollar-for-dollar matching on your donation: Please give now to reach twice as many students in 2016!

Jose Elias, VO’s Pacific Northwest Outreach Coordinator, has personally handed booklets to 20,699 students at 42 different schools this semester!

Above are Jose (second from right) and fellow Adopt a College activists (from left) Jacob Penney, Heather Bolint, Tessie Connors, and Ellen Kennelly with the literature cartons they emptied on the first day of classes at Western Washington University. Together, they set a huge record for the campus, handing out 4,451 Vegan Outreach booklets – and met a student who said she went vegan after receiving one last year!

Today, you can inspire twice as many new vegans and spare twice as many animals from suffering: Donate now to receive dollar-for-dollar matching!

Yuri Mitzkewich, VO’s Southeast Outreach Coordinator, has placed booklets into the hands of 57,238 students at 85 different schools this semester!

Above (from left) are Yuri, Jean Paul Grisales, Sarah Kiser, and John Sakars at Florida Gulf Coast University, where they reached more than 3,100 students in a single day – a new record for the campus!

At Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus in Tampa, Yuri spoke with several interested students:

Josh [below, left] stayed talking a good 20 minutes at least, taking a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating, as well as other info to read through. Having already tried vegan one time for a short period, he got all the help he wanted towards giving it another go. We also signed up several future volunteers in our time here, and even made contacts to do a presentation for a nutrition class possibly in the spring!

At the Florida Institute of Technology, Yuri and John reached 1,204 students:

We got the literature flowing out fast, and already before 11 am we had beat the previous FIT record. Reception was mostly good, but even better were the amazing conversations we kept having with students. The best one was with Dustin [above, right], who came back to me after checking out his Even If You Like Meat during class. Formerly vegetarian for over a year, he said the info made him remember why he’d chosen to go veg in the first place, and now would be going back. One of many here today inspired, I’m hoping, to make the change!

Yuri teamed with Julie Henry at Florida A&M University, and together they reached 1,000 students:

The highlight was Kerry [below, left], who was impressed greatly by the Compassionate Athlete he got. After talking a few minutes, digging a little deeper into things, he thanked us for being there getting him the info. First confirmed new vegan of the week at FAMU!

On November 18, Yuri and John had a huge day at Louisiana State University:

I was stoked to have the help of LSU’s new AR student crew for the first time ever. Group members Sarah Buckley and April Ahmed came out first, joining during the breaks they had in their morning class schedules. Both did awesome. Just before lunch we were joined by the group president, Jesse Clifton, who was also great getting the info out right from the start. He enjoyed the action thoroughly and now wants to get the group into leafleting regularly.

Jesse even got new group members signed up during the outreach – seven in total, including Carrie [above, right], who reported she went vegan from getting a booklet three years back while attending Tulane University!

With Jesse and crew on hand, we kept the numbers flowing steadily, and by the end had again broken the campus record, only just done here last year: 4,452 reached in total – not just a record for LSU, but the biggest day now in Louisiana outreach so far!

Take advantage of our year-end matching campaign: Through December, Your Donation to VO = 2 × More Vegans = 2 × More Animals Spared!

Kassy Ortega, VO’s Washington, DC Outreach Coordinator, has personally handed booklets to 22,651 students at 25 different schools this semester!

Kassy (above, foreground) and fellow activists (above, from left) Mike Wilson, Chris Guinn, and Julie Sutton emptied several boxes of literature at Virginia Commonwealth University, handing out 4,764 booklets in a single day!

Above are two students Kassy met this fall:

I handed Lydia [left] a booklet on campus. She handed it back and told me she was already vegetarian. I put a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating in her hand and told her that there were vegan recipes inside. After a 15-minute conversation about the dairy and egg industries, she exclaimed, “I’m pretty sure you just made a new vegan today!”

Danielle [right] received a booklet from us last semester and has stopped eating animals!

Right now, you have the opportunity to spare twice as many animals from suffering: Have your donation doubled today!

VO Outreach Coordinator Thomas Goodman (below, left) has personally handed booklets to 23,340 students at 38 different campuses this semester! And longtime Adopt a College activist John Sakars (below, right) is this fall’s most prolific volunteer – traveling with Thomas through Canada and Upstate New York, and later with Yuri Mitzkewich, VO’s Southeast Outreach Coordinator, John has placed booklets into the hands of 54,000 students at 66 different schools!

After reaching 1,050 Dawson College students with John on October 2, Thomas wrote:

Today, more than any day on the tour yet, was filled with so many positive one-on-one interactions with individuals professing their interest in becoming involved with activism in their community.

There were also a few stories I’d like to share: One individual heard from a friend that there were two people handing out literature from VO, and she was inspired to come meet us. Another individual has been leaning toward lessening her meat intake and is going to begin starting Meatless Mondays. Lastly, there was a young man who mentioned he became a vegetarian nearly one year ago to motivate his father to lessen his meat intake for his health. He said that while he did it for his dad originally, he is thinking of now going vegan for animals!

Above (from left) are Yuri, Natalie Boydstun, and John at the University of Florida, where they handed out 4,356 booklets on December 7 with help from Alec Neller and Nick Salamun, breaking the previous campus record set by John and Yuri in October! When John handed a Your Choice booklet to Rosa (above, right), she was excited to tell him that she had already become pescatarian last fall after receiving a VO booklet on campus.

Today, your donation will help twice as many people move toward a vegan diet: Donate now to receive dollar-for-dollar matching!

As of December 4, Steve Erlsten, VO’s Northern California Outreach Coordinator, has already placed Vegan Outreach booklets into the hands of 71,590 students at 99 different schools this semester!

Above is Steve with Taylor Walton, a Fresno State student he met in September:

Taylor stopped by to ask if I needed some help. The second big rush was about to start, so I gave her some booklets and let her hand out as many as she could without much instruction. Once the class change died down I asked if she had leafleted before, and we started talking about activism. When I asked if she was vegan, her response made my day.

She said she decided to go vegan this morning after getting a booklet from me! She had been trying not to think about how the animals are treated, but the booklet made that impossible. On her first day as a vegan she handed out 500 booklets!

When we were finished, she asked to take a photo of me for a class art project. She is going to sketch people who have had an impact on her life – including me.

Taylor not only went vegan and volunteered on the spot, but also joined Steve in setting a new leafleting record for her campus!

Now you can inspire twice as many new vegans – and new vegan activists: Have your donation matched today and double your impact for animals!

VO Outreach Coordinator Lori Stultz has personally handed booklets to 52,082 students at 67 different schools this semester!

Lori kicked off the semester in California, where she single-handedly reached more than 5,500 students her first three days in action! Below (from left) are a couple of the students who were inspired to go vegan after receiving booklets at Cerritos College; and Conner, a new vegetarian Lori met at SUNY New Paltz: “He said that he hoped to one day make the full transition to an animal-free diet. When I offered him a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating, he said it was exactly what he needed at this point in his journey.”

In October, Lori teamed with Adopt a College volunteers Steph Chocko and Kathy Carlsson at Stony Brook University, where they reached 2,000 students in a single day: “One student came back to us after receiving a Compassionate Choices booklet, floored by the information. He told us he’d never eat another pig, especially after reading about Emily. He was about to go home and make oatmeal for breakfast and asked us what he should use in place of cows’ milk. I gave him a Guide and had an enjoyable conversation with him about the wide variety of dairy-milk alternatives.”

Now you can spare twice as many farmed animals from suffering: Donate today and receive dollar-for-dollar matching!

You probably know about VO’s current matching donation drive — any donation made this month will be matched dollar-for-dollar!

But did you know that if you donate appreciated stock to VO, you won’t have to pay taxes on the gain and you’ll get to claim the value of the stock as a tax deduction?!*

Your donation of stock this month will be a double win for VO with your gift matched 100%, and a double win for you on your taxes!

If you’re able to make a stock donation, please contact Lisa Rimmert, Director of Development, at [email protected].

Don’t delay if you’d like a deduction for 2015! Thank you!

*View IRS Publication 526 for details and speak to a financial adviser.

Lana Smithson (below, left), VO’s New England Outreach Coordinator, has personally handed booklets to 13,855 students at 37 different schools this semester! And VO’s New York City Outreach Coordinator, Eileen Botti (below, right), has placed booklets into the hands of 8,492 students at 17 campuses this fall!

On September 25, Lana reached 855 students at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh: “A nice young man said the information was really good and just what he had been looking for lately. I heard from a few more grateful students and then met one who said she went veg a year ago after getting a booklet from me. I got her picture [below].”

Support Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College leafleting program: Take advantage of our year-end matching campaign and have your donation doubled today!