by Christine Pesta
There are plenty of ways for you to enjoy time with your friends. Some of those ways can help to raise awareness of vegan concerns, and benefit animals and the environment as well.
Whether there are two or three of you, or as many as twenty to thirty, there are lots of ways to have fun and even help make a difference in the lives of animals or the health of our planet. Check out some ideas below of ways to get together with friends, family, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers to make memories and the most of your time!
Check out a New Restaurant
Whether it’s once a week, once a month, or just whenever a new vegan restaurant or cafe opens – it’s a great opportunity to sample what might become a new favorite spot, as well as catch up on the latest with your friends. You don’t even have to wait for a new place to open, just pick a place you all like whenever you want to just spend time together. If it is a new place, everyone could order their own dish, but you could also order a bunch of different entrees that everyone around the table can sample. It makes for an enjoyable time, as well as serving as inspiration to try to create a similar dish at home!
Go For a Hike
Grab your boots, your walking stick, a few of your pals, and take a hike! There’s nothing nicer than to be out in the fresh air, enjoying nature and the company of friends. Try a different spot each time, make each hike a little longer or more challenging.
Bring Out the Artist in Each Other
While hiking might be fun, there are other ways to enjoy nature that can also bring out your creativity. Gather with friends at a park, or the beach and bring watercolors and brushes, colored pencils, or even crayons! Spend time drawing or painting nature in what ever way you wish to interpret it. Try photographing it, or have everyone awaken the poet within them by writing a poem about what they see or how it makes them feel, and share them with each other.
Take Care of Mother Earth
Another way you can all get together and also be of service is by going a beach, park, or scenic area or roadway and picking up trash. It may not only inspire others to do the same, but it will hopefully discourage others nearby from littering. You would also be helping the local wildlife out as some litter could cause them great harm.
Raise Money for a Cause
Whether it’s a car wash, a bake sale, or a garage sale, you can grab your friends and raise money to help a local animal shelter or sanctuary buy food or supplies, or donate to your favorite vegan charity. If you decide to hold a bake sale, it makes it the perfect opportunity to introduce people to some wonderful vegan baked goods as well!
Volunteer Your Time Together
If you live anywhere near an animal sanctuary, there are many that might be able to use a bunch of helping hands, as many are only run by as few as one or two people. They could certainly use some help feeding the animals, cleaning out stalls or kennels, giving animals a bath, administering medicine or redressing wounds, or helping with general repairs around the property. If there are enough in your group, let the owners of the sanctuary show you what to do, and then give them the rest of the day off if they’d like. They might love to have a day to themselves, or at the very least catch up on paperwork or ordering supplies, etc. Your group could not only give them a great deal of much needed help, but also a little time to take a breath – as such heroes well deserve!
Pass Out Pamphlets
Get a group of friends together, head to the local campus or farmer’s market, and pass out pamphlets that give helpful information on veganism. Organizations such as Vegan Outreach will supply the materials through their local chapters and give tips on how to best connect with those you strike up conversations with. It’s not only a great way to get the gang together, but you might very well make a few new friends too!
Movie Night
This is not only a great chance to bring your latest vegan creation to a gathering of friends for them to try, but you get to watch a great movie, and catch up on each others lives. Extra points if the movie you watch is the latest vegan documentary, or if veganism, animal rights, or the environment are part of the movie’s storyline.
Book Review
For those vegan friends who love to read, a vegan book club might be a fun way to spend time together. Reading fiction or non-fiction devoted to animals, animal rights, veganism, the environment, or even the occasional cookbook, is not only a way to inform and entertain yourselves, but it could make for some lively discussions. When choosing a cookbook, have each person make a different recipe from the book to bring to the next meeting. You can each sample the food and give your review of the book in a very delicious way!
Start a Community Garden
While there are lots of opportunities to grow food for yourselves, why not lend a hand at a community garden that feeds a neighborhood or the homeless in the area? Even if it’s just once a month that you can all co-ordinate your time together, that doesn’t mean that some of you can’t participate a little more often if you find the work fun and satisfying. It will also go to help many who may not otherwise have nutritious food available to them. You and your friends can also take the opportunity to pass on information about veganism to those who are interested in learning more about the lifestyle.
These are just some of the ways you can get together with friends, have a great time, and possibly help others. If you do something as a group you’d like others to take notice of, maybe wear the same colors or identical t-shirts or ball caps. Others spotting you doing something fun and positive not only puts vegans in a great light, but may inspire onlookers to get involved in their community, or at the very least, give veganism a try!
