Confessions of a Vegan Vacation Organizer

[robert]

Hey everyone,

 

I just wanted to share this.

 

We're not too embarrassed to say that as organizers Jessifly and I spent over $1000.00 combined from our own money to help keep the costs down for everyone else attending. That was an essential factor in whether some people would be able to make it or not and we wanted to do the best we could to help build community and support this community.

 

So now, weeks later, we find ourselves in a hole. We didn't get some of the fundraising money we had hoped to raise, and costs for food and fuel and other expenses added up during the week.

 

We do plan on holding an auction to auction off some of the items that have appeared in many photos (like the size XS women's shorts veganpotter jump roped in), as a fun way to raise some money. I'm sure we'll get some items donated for this cause as well.

 

We maintain this community building event as a non-profit event and it has literally been that, once again...with over $1000.00 in personal bills we've accumulated.

 

Jessifly has a Vegan Vacation paypal account if anyone feels moved to make a donation. I'll encourage her to follow-up to this post and provide that info and anything else she'd like to share.

 

If you run a company or work for a company that would like to donate something to our fundraising auction, please contact either of us by PM.

 

If we generate more than was is owed to us, we'll just keep it in the V.V. account to use towards next year's event.

 

Thanks to all of those who also contributed extra funds to food and fuel while you were here. It was very much appreciated!

 

We love our community and that is what put us into a financial hole. Next year we'll probably charge more, which I know eliminates the possibility for some of you to attend, but it will also ensure that we are not paying out loads of money from our own pockets.

 

We work hard to keep costs low and invite people to stay at our house for weeks and aim to provide and fun and enriching experience to all who attend.

 

Look for info about how to donate to the Vegan Vacation fund soon. And the auction should be great!

 

Thanks so much!

[Richard]

Has the paypal thing been set up yet?

[robert]

Yeah, donations can be made via paypal to the following e-mail address:

 

[email protected]

 

Thanks!

 

We'll set up an auction soon too and we'll try other ways of fundraising throughout the year to prepare for the next Vegan Vacation.

 

Just go to www.paypal.com and send money to:

 

[email protected]

 

We appreciate any contributions!

[Jessifly]

Thanks for your contributions and help friends! It was a major aspect of the fundraising that everyone attending the cabin was to attempt to get donations of money and goods for the silent auction before VV, but unfortunately there was very little success, but we couldn't turn everyone away so we proceeded with VV as planned. We had several cancellations to the cabin as well that contributed to Robert and I having to absorb more costs. Almost everyone who attended chipped in a bit where they could in purchasing food though so that was helpful! There were unexpected costs as well such as the disposing of 14 large bags of trash after 2 weeks of 10-15 people at the house, we completely overlooked that until we had to deal with it afterward! I feel I need to give recognition to those who have helped quite a bit already...

 

Robert donated t-shirts to each cabin participant, plus donated countless amounts of food and Vega

VeganPotter was our first donator for VV08 back in December of 07 from his pottery sales

Dreamingana donated money

Laura made the highest monetary donation pre-VV08 (even though she was unable to attend, we are hoping she can next year!)

I know everyone chipped in with the food purchases for the week but noticeably significant was the amount of groceries I witnessed LeanandGreen and thendanisays contribute

bvp663 donated lots of Probars to the cabin food supply

HSOrlando made some food and monetary donations to the group

Jason just made a significant donation to help out

davidmNY donated quite a few of his cd singles

 

Thank you to these VV'ers and to anyone else I may have forgot to mention!

 

If you'd like to help besides money we could use items for selling in the silent auction, we will organize this fundraising event as soon as we can accumulate enough items.

 

Quick note also, there are several people that still owe me for the Batman movies tickets... contact me if you're not sure, I've checked off those who have paid me back

[hsorlando]

I just wanted to say thank you to Robert and Jessifly for being so generous, and making vv08 happen no matter what. At the time I gave what I could, and I plan on giving more to the pay pal account because I was part of vegan vacation and saw first hand that there were a lot of expences, and some were not foreseen, like the trash. It would have been enough that Robert and Jessifly opened their house up to alll the out of towners, but they ended up doing much more. Again thanks.

[robert]

I just wanted to say Thank You to those who have made donations or contributions. We really, really appreciate it!

 

We also plan to get our auction up and running soon to raffle off prizes as a fundraiser to pull ourselves out of V.V. debt.

 

Thanks again!