Free Stuff Here! + Party!

VegSRQ In L.A. pt 2


So after our mind-blowing vegan meal, we went straight on over to the Beverly Hills Hotel to meet up with The Gala organizers and volunteers. We ended up diving right in to help stuff bags upon bags upon bags (500 in all) with all kinds of vegan goodies. There literally was a room full of donated magazines, cookbooks, body products, wearables, candies, cookies, and other food products. To help you get the schwag vibe, here's a couple of pictures of the assembly line process.

Here is the room full of goodies as was delivered.


And a shot of some really great cookies donated by Liz Lovely. Check out this great company that supports independent groups like VegSarasota and big organizations like Farm Sanctuary


Here's one of the workers smiling as she goes (she's pretty cute eh?)


And 4 hours later, the room full of the finished product!


The group of great volunteers and organizers, ready for the big party.



All in all it was a crazy, hectic, and fun process. The volunteers were all working very hard to make things go as smoothly as possible, but everyone was still enjoying the teamwork. I guess it helps keep people smiling when your in a room full of free stuff - sorta feels like a shopping spree, but one where you get to give away all the stuff.

All that bag-stuffing action made us a bit hungry again, so we decided to head over to a little place called 'The Vegan Joint'. I'm pretty sure they call it that because whenever you go there you have to get 'rolled' - right out the door cause you're so full. The dinner was great Thai food, fresh spring rolls, mushroom soup, red curry, and brown rice. They also had a tasty looking breakfast menu so we went there for breakfast the next day for their tropical pancakes & country style hash browns.



The following day was the Gala itself. It was an amazingly well organized production of stars, speakers, awards, and entertainment held at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Dill & were asked to be celebrity handlers, so as part of the VIP/Press reception we generally helped out and watched over things. I was glad to meet Daniela Sea from Showtime's "The L-Word" (pictured below). Also, glad to run into our friend Paul Shapiro(pictured below), founder of Compassion Over Killing, and currently doing great things over at the Humane Society of the US. Other attendees included (among others) U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, Loretta Swit, Nancy Sinatra, David Silverman, Maggie Q, Jennifer Coolidge, Alicia Silverstone, and the evenings hostess, Emily Deschanel. I'm sure that Farm Sanctuary will soon update their 2007 Gala Page with photos and a much better recap of the event than I could spit out. And since you're getting winded reading this already, I'll try and wrap it up.





The next morning, we were fortunate enough to be invited to pop in on a brunch (which went from 11a-5pm) at the home of one of the movement's great activists, Karen Dawn. Our pals Dan Piraro & his wife Ashley Smith (also phoenomenal activists) invited us and proved to be great conversation (the Mimosa's may have helped). Also I was glad to chat with Laban Pheidias, an extremely smart ex-pro skater with a couple of shows on the Fuel Network.



That's Dill & Dan. Isn't that setting gorgeous? It's on the terrace of the lovely and talented Karen Dawn of Dawnwatch.com, who was gracious enough to host a delicious vegan brunch a a gaggle of Farm Sanctuary 2007 Gala attendees. Quack Quack.

That concludes this chapter, I'll try and get back with a quick post covering some of the other great restaurants we ate at.