VegSarasota October Meetup at Whole Foods

So another month, and another great meetup at Whole Foods Market in Sarasota. About 25 people came out on a nice cool Florida evening to hang out and have a good time meeting and socializing with members of their community.

Raylon started out by welcoming a couple of first timers like Don, Brian, and Donald, re-iterating how thankful we always are for folks just taking the time to come and connect. Since Halloween is right around the corner, Raylon mentioned a list of vegan Halloween candies to fill the bowls of all the little ghouls & goblins this weekend. My personal favs are the chick-o-sticks, which until this week I never realized were vegan. Raylon also mentioned an article by Mary Martin that he found through Erik's Diner that had a really unique way to think about supply & demand and how your dollar is your vote.

Dill then lead off talking about all the great events that are just around the corner. Sunday November 5th will be the 4th annual Vegetarian & Compassionate Living festival starting at 1pm. We had a wonderful showing last year giving out food samples and spreading love into the community. This year it will be particularly interesting as it is held in the location of our wedding just this May - sweet!

Also just around the corner is VegSarasota.com's 2nd annual Thanksgiving celebration. Last year we held it in a smaller location and catered food for a limited number of people, mostly using self-funding. This year we're glad to have sponsors like Better World Media, the East West College of Natural Medicine, Jessica's Organic Farm, Center of Integrated Medicine as well as local restaurants, and another great speaking engagement - Reiki master Kimberly Braun of Urthdance LLC. We're really stepping it up with entertainment by Radio Free Carmela, raffle prizes, and more excellent food than you can imagine!

Dill gave a very impassioned and impromptu talk about how labeling people and products and branding and marketing really serve in a lot of cases to get people into a rut and reduce the act of actually thinking about where their consumed goods come from.

Brittany mentioned a new play coming up at the Booker VPA, and we talked about the importance of Voting NO on amendment 3 this November 7th. (Early voting has begun!)

Things wrapped up with new attendee Brian mentioning his wife is ready to give birth and that they would like to raise their child veggie (congrats Brian!). Also Donald revealed that he drove all the way down from Orlando to attend the meeting, what a trooper! He is a great fellow and a member / youth organizer at an Orlando Buddhist Temple named the Guang Ming Temple. They have weekly service at noon on Sundays and afterwards offer a vegetarian meal free of charge to anyone who wishes to attend. They're almost completed building their new location, and from the pictures he showed me it looks amazing.

That's Brian on the left, Donald (lifetime vegetarian) in the middle, and the thing that looks like giant candy corn is my back :)



Everyone kindly agreed to organize themselves to closely resemble the new wall Bush approved for the Mexican-American border and Dill snapped this shot. Neat eh?



Thanks again everyone!