Vegan Outreach Run For Their Lives!
at the Santa Cruz Half Marathon & 10K

Vegan Outreach and Marathon Matt are teaming up
to create an extensive and exciting running and fundraising program!

Team Vegan

Members receive:

• A comprehensive training schedule
• One weekly professionally coached run workout (in San Francisco)*
• A technical running shirt
• Your own personalized fundraising web page
• A fundraising strategy workbook
• Ongoing support from Marathon Matt for both your training and fundraising

*You can train from home using on-line coaching from Marathon Matt or attend his running practices in San Francisco every Saturday at 9:30 AM starting on Feb 2, 2008 (location listed above). The program concludes on Saturday, April 12, 2008 with completion of the Santa Cruz Half Marathon and 10K!

There is NO FEE for the training! You are asked to commit to raising a minimum of $1000. There is a registration fee for the race for which Vegan Outreach will reimburse you if you meet the fundraising minimum.

Register today and you can start fundraising right away!

Prizes!

When you donate to Vegan Outreach, you are creating more vegetarians in the world. More vegetarian eating means fewer animals killed in slaughterhouses - it's that simple. We love keeping the Vegan Outreach brochures updated and effective, and we love getting them out to the public every single day. But we couldn't do it without financial support.

All of us at Vegan Outreach would like to thank you for running to save animal's lives, or donating to sponsor a runner, or both! You hard work and generosity will result in a kinder world.

Because you are doing so much to help us help animals, we would like to offer prizes for the top fund-raisers:

• 1st Place: Gourmet vegan dinner for you and five of your best friends, cooked and served in your home by Chef Alex Bury.
  
  (Sadly, we can't offer this to anyone who lives more than a three hour's drive from Oakland. If our #1 fund-raiser lives too far away, we'll double prize #2 for you!)
   
• 2nd Place: $50.00 gift certificate to Pangea.
   
• 3rd, 4th and 5th places: Vegan Outreach t-shirt. This is different from the technical running shirt that all runners receive. Models not included.

About Vegan Outreach

Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to which donations are tax-deductible.

Vegan Outreach (VO) is saving animals from living miserable lives on factory farms by persuading people to become vegetarian or vegan through the widespread distribution of Why Vegan and our other pamphlets. Every person persuaded to go vegetarian spares 35 mammals and birds per year and thousands over their lifetime.

VO focuses on reaching younger people and so far this semester we have handed pamphlets to over 300,000 students on 336 college and high school campuses. The result is that every single day we hear back from people telling us they went vegetarian due to our influence.

Choosing to act with compassion is the ultimate affirmation of our humanity. Most people don't want to support animal suffering, they just don't know it exists. From children and athletes to celebrities and grandparents, compassionate living is spreading -- and easier than ever! Today, even small-town grocery stores can feature a variety of veggie burgers, deli slices, plant-based milks, and nondairy desserts -- a bounty unimaginable only a decade ago!

Your support will help us bring about change even faster.

Reasons to Run

1. It's a great excuse to eat more vegan pizza and vegan donuts. You'll burn tons of calories while having a blast. How often does someone tell you to "Eat more pasta?" Marathon Matt will tell you that all the time.

4. Runner's High. Is. Real. Sure, drugs are fun, but who can afford them? Runner's high (endorphin burst) is a blast, and totally legal!

5. Special clothes! It's great fun to go into Fleet Feet running store and get fitted for running shoes and sports bras. You'll feel so athletic and serious, and the clothes are all so fancy. Running shirts are also special--they're made of hi-tech stuff made to do things like "wick."

6. Runners don't have to worry about getting diabetes or any of the other health problems that come with being overweight and/or sedentary. Talk about a load off your mind.

7. Runners get OUT. You only get one life, why spend it sitting on the same old couch day after day? With the Team Vegan you'll run through new neighborhoods, down new beaches, into new parks-- a great way to get to know the place you live.

8. You can run everywhere and anywhere. Just throw your shoes into your suitcase and you're good to go on trips. No expensive club fees, no bikes to lug around, just you.

9. You will sleep better than you ever have.

10. If you have a dog, you HAVE to run! You and your dog will both be so much happier. He'll be better-behaved (all dogs are when they have enough exercise) and heck, you might be too.

11. Runners have great legs! So if you join a running team, you will have lots of legs to admire. Please admire ALL the legs to avoid being sexist.

12. Running teams are the best way to meet a date-able special somebody! Before you even learn their name, you'll already know that he/she is active, healthy, willing to try new things, compassionate, and fun. And that he/she has great legs.

Reasons to Support Team Vegan!

Whether you're thinking of donating to support a Team Vegan runner, or you're a runner feeling nervous about asking your friends and family to support you - read on.

1. You don't like to leaflet. You know you should, but you hate it. But...you want to help animals. So pay others to do it for you! There's lots of fantastic and brave activists who can leaflet, but only if someone with money is paying for the leaflets, the travel, and the small salary some of them get. You are not doing less by donating. You are being smart, and utilizing what you have to give to animals.

2. The highest-paid Vegan Outreach staffer earns $45,000 and drives an 8 year old Nissan. This is the kind of group you want to fund. Your money doesn't pay for lavish lifestyles or 6-figure paychecks, your money goes right to the work. If you're a "normal" Bay Area professional, earning $75,000 or more (some of you a lot more!), then you can afford to help Mr. 45k change the world! Again, back to #1, you can pay him to suffer for you. You drive the nice new car and donate, he'll drive the old car and leaflet - you're both happy and animals will be happiest of all.

3. Society won't go veg unless they are asked. But Vegan Outreach can't keep asking without money. It's that simple. I know I want a veg world and I'm willing to pay for it. I'm willing to ask my friends to help me. I'm willing to make a few negligible sacrifices (buy a few less $5 coffee drinks) in order to create major change in the world, now, while I'm around to see it and revel in it.

4. Your friends and family are sick of you asking them to go vegan. Fine! They can sponsor your race and thus pay for other people to go vegan. They're happy, you're happy, the animals are happy.

5. Perhaps you're having a hard time going vegan. You want to help animals but change is not your Super #1 Strength. See #4. It works!

6. You have $1,000 and two choices.

• A. Fancy shopping spree at Bloomingdale's. You'll barely get anything for that money and what you do get you'll hate in 3 months, or it won't fit anymore because you're not running.
• B. Donate it to your favorite Team Vegan runner. Be directly responsible for changing the entire world. Right now. The next time you see a news story about the growth of vegetarianism among youth, you'll know YOU made it happen.

7. Animals need money more than anything. Yes, they need activists and volunteers, speakers and streakers, writers and lawyers. But all that work is funded by someone. Who pays the small salary of AR employees? Who pays for the videos, the protest signs, the leaflets, the online marketing? Activists are the face of the movement and thank goodness there are people willing to stand up and speak up. But donors are the force behind the movement. Donors put their money where their mouth is - they walk their talk, they fund the dreams, they make it happen.

9. And last but definitely not least...give because it helps YOU. A recent study from the University of Oregon said, "Knowing your money is going to a good cause can activate some of the same pleasure centers in your brain as food and sex."

Just think - If you join the running team and you could combine donating endorphins with running endorphins...Oh my!