Lawrence, Kansas -- Earth Day 2019 -- a Day to Remember!

    This year's Earth Day celebration marks  the day I noticed a shift in the conversation around veganism in Lawrence Ks. The change was palpable for many of us!

This year was different from every previous Earth Day I have participated in.

It wasn't because the sun was shining, although that was a wonderful improvement over last year. And it wasn't because we had even more people come by our table -- though that was pretty gratifying too.

And it wasn't just because this was the first year that a vegan message was expressed in the Earth Day parade that kicked off the day's events, although finally seeing and hearing a a clear vegan message in this parade was healing for those of us who have previously felt shamed in Lawrence for being "unapologetic" vegans.

        Here's a six minute video my daughter Sarina made about the event:

    

     As the video above explains, the sidewalks along the parade route were prepared ahead of time with vegan messaging too. Here is just a very small sampling of the chalk designs along Massachusetts Street. I had to leave the chalking to help set up the booth. Here are a few images snapped before I left:

Lollipops with environmental messaging on them were passed out along the parade route too...

     There were THREE different booths of people whose primary focus was promoting veganism at this Earth Day, but particularly heart-healing for me, was how many people came to the booth I was volunteering at, and then told me that they had been sent to our table by one of the many environmental groups at Earth Day (who were not specifically promoting veganism with their materials.)

     Not only were the crowds of people much bigger than last year (and there were NO breaks in people coming by our table) but more people than ever before were already aware of the fact that the single biggest thing an individual can do to reduce their personal carbon footprint is to replace meat, dairy and eggs in their diet with plants. They were anxious to try the vegan cheeses and ice-cream samples we were giving away and happily picked up vegan starter guides and other information to help them on their vegan journey.

   This was such a wonderful change from previous years and made it clear, we really are hitting a tipping point -- in terms of raising awareness and receptivity to veganism in our community. Woohoo!!!!!!!

     Here I am with Anna McCoy (first on the left) and my other daughter Sammi (second from right) and my husband Joe, when we finally had a chance to pose for a picture at the end.

     Here was the KU Vegan Club booth:

     And the KC Animal Save booth:

     It was a FABULOUS day!