United Kingdom

A Successful Campaign at the 2012 Summer Olympics

[London] In the summer of Golden Year 9 (2012), approximately 10,500 athletes from 204 countries took part in the Olympic Games, demonstrating a spirit of friendship, fair play, nobility and peace. Taking this great opportunity to share Master’s message, our Association members from London and Surrey formed a working team in April to prepare for their first “Be Vegan, Make Peace” campaign, and invited brothers and sisters from around the world to join in the effort. Approximately 65 Association members from Formosa, China, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Canada, the US, Holland, Germany, France, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Spain, Ireland and England came together and worked enthusiastically for the event.

In a short time, the members designed a campaign logo (above), featuring a large heart enveloping both humans and animals, launched the website www.beveganmakepeace.com, and prepared T shirts, flyers, advertising boards, placards, and banners, as well as small badges and stickers to disseminate the message. In early July, the members formed two teams, with one group staying at a camp in Olympic Park and the other going to the London Center to focus on tourist hotspots as well as other Olympic venues in the London area.

A week before the start of the Olympics, the members frequented London’s most famous tourist attractions, including Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Oxford Circus, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, and the Tower of London. Despite the hot summer weather, the teams went out every day and worked from morning until late in the evening, wearing promotional T-shirts, holding banners, and distributing flyers, with some in colorful animal costumes approaching people in a friendly manner. Whenever they travelled in the subways, their costumes and T-shirts attracted attention and often sparked meaningful discussions.

Many passersby also expressed appreciation for the team’s work, with some asking about vegan restaurants, and others, including a policeman, wanting to learn more about the Be Vegan, Make Peace message. Our Association members answered all the questions posed to them and explained the benefits of the plant-based diet.

Many people shared their stories about how the vegan diet had transformed their lives. For example, one woman who had had an incurable illness proudly announced that by turning vegan she had made a complete recovery and later gave birth to a beautiful baby. An Indian family said after watching a documentary on animal cruelty on Supreme Master Television, they all cried for the mother cows and decided to stop consuming dairy products the next day.

A brother in a Scooby Doo costume being interviewed by Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) or ‘Second German Television,’ a public-service German TV channel based in Mainz (Rheinland-Pfalz) July 20, Westminster, London	Initiates in frog and parrot costumes being interviewed by a reporter from a South African online publication	Article by MSNBC about Vegan Turkey: http://www.msnbc.msn. com/id/48523289/ns/ world_news-london_ 2012_hosting_the_games/ #.UCJIHMhSRLo	Article published by a group of young Brazilian and Russian journalists for their media project ‘Impact-Jeux-Londres’ funded by the French Institute in London http://www.impact-jeux-londres.info/2012/08/08/les-vegetaliens-sinvitent-aux-jeux/

Interview by Marisol Gonzalez, reporter for Televisa Deportes, Mexico’s largest TV network

In addition, our team members were interviewed by media outlets such as Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), or Second German Television, a public-service German TV broadcaster. The team’s activities were also covered by MSNBC News and Impact-Jeux-Londres, or Impact-London-Games, a media project funded by the French Institute in London.

The members staying at the camp were also filmed by a crew from Televisa Deportes, Mexico’s largest TV network, and interviewed by reporter Marisol Gonzalez. The TV crew was impressed by our Association’s large setup and especially liked the kitchen. The famous Mexican reporter Banque Gonzalez was extremely happy to eat vegan cheese since she was lactose intolerant. Our Association members served the crew and reporters vegan food and discussed how a plant-based diet can benefit the environment and human health, and detailed the extent of animal cruelty involved in the meat industry. The TV crew showed deep understanding and feelings for the team’s message.

Supporting The Global Summit

A few days after the Olympic Games ended, a team of our Association members had the honor of serving vegan cuisine to delegates and attendees at The Global Summit held from August 15 to 17 in London. The Summit series is a citizen-driven solution-making forum that seeks effective social and technological innovations for a sustainable future.

On the Summit’s opening day, the team served a welcoming dinner buffet at a town hall in Stratford and in the following two days provided two daily meals at London House in a historic college building. The food was prepared by Loving Hut chefs and packed in meal boxes which included the ingredients or names of the dishes, along with stickers reading “Be Vegan, Make Peace” on top. On the last day, the team prepared special snacks including vegan cupcakes, brownies, cookies and sandwiches which were enjoyed by all the guests. A lady from the U.S. commented that she had never tasted such delicious gluten free vegan cakes.

In addition, the Association members set up an information desk, offering guests gift bags containing a copy of Master’s book From Crisis to Peace: The Organic Vegan Way is the Answer, a vegan guide book, and a flyer. The guests were highly receptive to the vegan message and thanked Loving Hut UK for its support. Most of the participants could not believe how delicious vegan food can be and many expressed a desire to become vegan.

Although they came from various countries and spoke diverse languages, our Association members worked closely together with the common goal of promoting the vegan world ideal during both events. They sincerely thank Master for giving them the wonderful honor of sharing Her message at the 2012 Olympics. It is their hope that with greater understanding of the consequences of meat-eating, more and more people will become aware and choose the compassionate vegan lifestyle to bring about a more sustainable and loving planet.

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