Berkeley Vegan Earth Day, April 22nd

With the Second Annual Berkeley Vegan Earth Day officially recorded into history, it’s time to extend a lot of praise and appreciation for the many people who helped make this event a rousing success.  Ancient wisdom says it takes a village to raise a child; in many ways, growing the seed of BVED 2012 can borrow from this adage.

The collaboration of sponsors, speakers, exhibitors, volunteers, friends and supporters rendered a flawless affair where visitors were greeted with an abundance of fun, food, information and hard truths about veganism and the environment; the absence of any one of you involved with this second annual event would have lessened the overall community impact. That’s how valuable this collective village was in cultivating and nurturing organizer Karine Brighten‘s vision.

Vegucated played to a full house and markedly changed the perspective of at least three people who offered their positive opinions after the screening. Below you’ll find a testimonial from one volunteer whose experience exemplifies the very reason we all worked so hard to create a fun and educational event. Here’s more good news:

• Animal Place received $300 from the silent auction
• Save Japan Dolphins received 10% of ticket sales & BVED merchandise for $320
• 20 vendors, 17 speakers and 20 volunteers kept attendees happy, fed and informed

Enjoy more event photos by Josh Rodriguez Photography, and check over at Karine Brighten Events for upcoming presentation videos, as well. Stay abreast of what we’ll be planning for next year’s event by subscribing to our free newsletter. We still have some BVED bottles ($10) and bags ($5) that for a limited time we’ll donate 50% of sales to Save Japan Dolphins. Email us to place your order.

And remember, planning BVED is just one of the many eco-friendly, socially responsible events we organize here at Karine Brighten Events, which include film screenings & premieres, corporate networking events, trade shows, conferences, grand openings, nonprofit fundraisers and weddings. Contact us at 510.269.7252 or via email for your free consultation.  Enjoy $125 of planning for just $95 on your first event (a 24% savings) with this certificate.

We’d love to get your feedback about the event! Fill out our survey and be entered into a drawing to win a prize.

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Testimonial from volunteer Terri

This is my second year volunteering at Berkeley Vegan Earth Day.  It has grown from an evening event to a whole day filled with valuable vegan information and delicious food. As a non-vegan myself, I felt disconnected, like this wasn’t my cause, and was just sitting at the registration table all morning.  Like a lot of non-vegans, I am trapped in the myth that vegan food must taste flavorless, so the food vendors weren’t that attractive to me either.

Surprises started coming when I indulged in Local Love’s waffle bar, and find that it tastes pretty much like regular waffles.  Then came lunch time, and I grabbed an Avocado Kale Wrap from Natures Express, and boy, was it de-li-cious!  This sort of opened up my appetite and prompted me to shop around the vendor area.  As I find more delicious food, and realize they taste pretty much the same as what I normally eat, some of them even better, I was more determined than before to see the afternoon film, Vegucated.

The film was all that I imagined it would be, and much more.  The featured people were funny, the way it was filmed was very endearing, and the information and scenes were shocking and sad, but only because my ignorance had made me look the other direction prior to this.  Like what one of the featured people said, it’s hard to eat meat after having seen everything that happens to them just to become our food.  After having seen that they’re treated like food even when they can still feel the pain and suffering.

Although this film hasn’t fully converted me into a vegan, it’s definitely something on my mind.  Since the event, I’ve actually been vegetarian for a couple of days now.  I am debating on starting my own 6-week (vegetarian/baby steps) experiment, and have been dragging people to Nature’s Express hoping to find a friend to do it with me.  It was a great event in all aspects, but especially in the educational and awareness-raising areas.  More people need to see Vegucated, that’s for sure!