Another successful VegFest, thanks to the many, many people who donated their valuable time!

We want to give big thank-you’s to Kim for being our treasurer and RAVS rep again, Darren for continuing to be our carpenter, welder, and all-around go-getter, and Jessica for jumping in with both feet to be our donor coordinator and drive-around-towner.  In addition to taking on those big jobs, they took on numerous small jobs that needed to be done.  “I can do that!”  All three also helped stuff the SWAG bags, helped at the Friday dinner and worked tirelessly from dawn to dusk at VegFest.

Thank you to Darren for renting a truck for us Friday and driving all over the west side with Michael H to pick up so much stuff we needed for VegFest – tents, signs, tables, chairs, and a pallet of flax milk.  Thank you to Michael H for ruining your back for the cause.

Thank you to Andy and Darren for helping store VegFest materials at Mockingbird Farm, and thanks to Mockingbird Farm for opening your beautiful! barn for us (see photo) to keep things safe until next year.  By the time he was done, Darren had helped move those seven tables, 51 chairs, six big plywood standups, and 12 very heavy sandbags out of storage and onto the truck, off the truck at the park, back on the truck, into his garage, onto Tina’s truck, and then into the barn!  Darren, Andy, and Tina were definitely ready to spend an hour with the animals at the farm.  Thanks to Jonell for hanging out with us there when she must have been very busy.

Thank you to Mary for lining up our speakers and arranging our film, for hosting the Anonymous for the Voiceless and Activism tables in her Vegan Army tent, for letting us store VegFest stuff in her garage for the past year, and for transporting several tents to us from New Jersey!  Thanks to Skylands Animal Rescue & Sanctuary for lending us the tents.

Thanks to Tina’s dad Jim for letting us store all ARRoc’s tables and chairs in his basement since RVCC closed.  As promised, they left for VegFest and didn’t return.  But don’t look too closely down there; a few things might sneak back in.

Thank you to Leanne for designing the 2018 sponsors and exhibitor applications – they look great!

Thank you to Jacki and Michael for taking home all the dirty dishes from the Friday dinner!  We turned around and they were gone.  Thanks to all who came out and helped there.

At the fest, thank you to Krista and Sandy for staffing the Animal Rights Rochester table.  Thank you to Falicia, Joseph, and Jim B for staffing the activism tables.

A thank you to Carol B for working tirelessly at the RAVS tent all day, and to the numerous RAVS volunteers who joined her: Beth, Brian & Renee B, Jim D, Donna & Harry P, Byron R, and Ren vanM.  Thanks to Carol and Ted for bringing all their audio visual equipment for the speakers and film.  Justin B. and Dave D set up the tent first thing in the morning for them – a big thank you for that!

Thank you to the staffers of the Ask a Vegan booth, Michael & Jacki, Kevin & Laurie, Doug S, Shelby, Roberta S, and Milton Mills!

It takes a vegan village to raise a VegFest, so many thanks to the volunteers that showed up to help on Friday and Saturday. Buckle up, here we go! Falicia, Don D. and Robyn helped square out the park with the vendor spots on Friday. Saturday started early with Tom R. and Daryl O. directing traffic. Justin B., Sirena T, Shari S. Doug S, and Elizabeth W. and Debora S. helped with vendor set up.

We had enthusiastic greeters and raffle ticket sellers, Alexa, Elizabeth, Kim, Rebecca, Darlene, Maria G, Ashley, Janet, Fawn, Lyn, Krista, Robyn, Varun, Michelle, Elijah, Christine, and Suzanne.   WOW!

Noreen S., Bob F., Jacki H., Daryl O., and Lori V. staffed the VegFest table answering questions and selling water bottles, t-shirts and raffle tickets!

We had 1,512 bottles of Good Karma milk to hand out to guests, and Mercedes, Savannah, Jayda, Stephanie A, Susan S, Debora S. and Carolyn W. were just the women to handle such huge job!

Smaller guests were kept entertained at the Kids’ Table by Susan S., Leslie S. Levi, Christian S, Daryl O. and Kathleen H. Thank you for sharing your smiles!

Rich S. provided tech support to get us set up for our speakers and the movie. Thanks for your expertise!

Beth B. was our “Jill of All Trades” and Tom R was our “Jack of All Trades”. Don B. showed up to help us with maintenance and whatever needed to be done at a moment’s notice. Thank you!

Thank you to Marissa of Sweet Image Photography for taking photos all day and sharing them freely.  The first batch is already up at our site.  Thanks to Joseph of Allman Aerial Solutions for taking drone footage!

And the day ended with Tear Down experts Tom R., Daryl O, Justin G, Debora S. and Jane D. Many thanks!

A big thank you to Justin B.,whose most used words that day were “What can I do next?”. Non-stop that man is!

Thank you to yoga teachers Jessica Middleton, Sandy Hicks, Chris Meeker, Brittany Boyd, and Imani Olear for donating their time to teach benefit yoga classes at the festival.

Thank you to Sarah Goodenough, Ben LeRoi, Kevin Lahey, and Dr. Milton Mills for speaking.

Thank you to Rob at PanoGraphics for donating all the graphic layout work for our VegFest printing this year and just generally putting up with us.  We realized too late that normally the layout is an extra charge and he should have been considered a sponsor!  Putting up with us is priceless, though.

That’s quite a list – and quite a group of generous spirits! We are so very grateful!

– Bubbie, Tina, and Mary