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Vegan Chalk Challenge
Welcome to the 2016 Vegan Chalk Challenge!
The response so far has been tremendous. Vegans and even non-vegans love seeing positive, peaceful messages in public spaces.
Imagine what we could do if vegans around the world started invading public spaces with messages of hope, love, empathy, kindness, respect and compassion?
So, here’s my challenge to every single vegan in the whole entire world…
1. Invite *all* your vegan friends to join us through this event page. If you’re slighty tech-savvy, you can use this java script to invite everyone at once without having to click through your entire friend list. Saves a lot of time. https://docs.google.com/
2. Buy a box of chalk and leave a peaceful, positive message in a public space. Greenways, city sidewalks and parks are all perfect. If you’re nervous, start with your driveway. Have fun, be safe and be creative!
3. Take pics. Post them to your Facebook groups and your social media channels, using the hashtag #veganchalkchallenge
4. Join our group, Vegan Chalk League. Post your pics and tell us about your experience: https://www.facebook.com/
Did you overcome a fear? Was it exhilirating? Did you have a postive intereaction?
5. “Like” and share our Vegan Chalk Challenge Facebook page. There, I will post photos/videos/stories from everyone. https://www.facebook.com/
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The story behind this:
My name is James DeAlto. I live in Raleigh, NC, USA and I’ve been a vegan for five years. In this time, I’ve lived with the nagging feeling that I could always be doing more to help animals. Thinking of what I could do that would be easily incorporated into my daily routine, I started doing “chalktivism” on walks with my dogs. It turned out to be a lot of fun, sparking a sense of creativity I haven’t felt in years.
I started posting pictures of my chalk messages on social media and received enough positive responses that I decided to start the Vegan Chalk Challenge.
Over 1,200 vegans from all over the the world signed up to take my first challenge. People went bonkers over this one simple idea. This is round two.
Since Jan 1st, over 450 vegans have signed up. When we get more exposure form major vegan groups, I expect more will. If we get news coverage, I expect even more will. If we get news coverage, we’ll have an opportunity to talk about the issues on mainstream television. Think of this as “Direct Chalking Everywhere” – writing beautiful messages in pretty spaces that invite people to think about the impacts of their food choices.
As long as we keep our messages positive and peaceful, we should be fine. No one is going to argue with a message like “Help build a bridge to a kinder world. Choose Vegan!” My non-vegan neighbors love my messages and ask me when I’m going to do more. I doubt they’d have the same response if I wrote “Meat is Murder.”
Howard Zinn said, “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
If you think this simple idea has potential, please join me and the hundreds of other vegans who have singed up already.
Here are 10 reasons I love “chalktivism.”
1. I can do it anywhere, anytime, alone or with friends. There is no need to organize, no need to travel, and very little risk involved.
2. There’s nothing controversial about it if we keep messages centered around empathy, compassion, kindness, love, mercy, hope, peace, etc. Presenting factual information is great, but I would encourage participants to steer away from words like “murder”, “rape”, “slavery” or “holocaust.” These words are off-putting. I, personally, prefer messages that express what we stand *for* and not so much what we’re against. My neighbors have told me they find my messages approachable.
3. There’s very little risk. In most areas, chalking on sidewalks is legal. Authorities haver far bigger things to worry about than people leaving temporary chalk messages about being kind to animals. If you’re nervous, just call your city and ask what the law is in your area.
4. Passersby are *very* interested. People will often stop to watch what I’m doing, as if I’m a street artist. They respect that I’m willing to put my beliefs out there in a creative way. In public spaces, chalk art is unexpected. It’s much more personal than a corporate advertisement and draws peoples’ attention.
5. When I post pictures or videos of my chalkings, there’s a sense of excitement among the vegan community. My group posts receive significantly more “likes” and positive comments than most others. People really go bananas when they see my pictures.
6. So much positivity comes out of it which helps to strengthen our community. I’ve seen so much love being poured out in the comments when I post pics. It’s something that almost everyone in the vegan movement can agree is a worthwhile way to advocate for animals. I’ve not recceived one negative comment yet.
7. When other vegans in my local community see my messages on their walks or runs, they get excited. I had a girl stop to tell me “I love your messages!” We chatted for a bit and she said she would come out to a community event. Another guy gave me the thumbs up and said, “I totally agree.” When I first started doing this, my therapist (who is also a vegan) said she saw some chalk messages while she was out running. She said she got so excited that she threw her arms in the air and yelled “yes!”. I told her I was the one who wrote them and she said she suspected so. It was a great moment for us. When vegans see vegan messages in public spaces, we feel validated!
8. While writing my messages, I’ve had many conversations with people which have led people to think more about their food choices. This always gives me a deep sense of satisfaction and reassures me that I’m making a difference.
9. Chalk events can be a great vehicle for building communities. You can create your own “Walking, Talking and Chalking” event. Get a few friends together and leave messages in areas with high foot traffic. Afterward, you can celebrate your activism with a delicious vegan meal.
10. Our chalkings can reach hundreds, if not thousands of people per day. This is especially true if you chalk walking paths where people have time to think and share conversation with whoever they’re walking with. Several of my neighbors have told me they’ve started to think more about their food choices because of my messages. Our combined efforts could translate into more vegans, more activists and less suffering.
Just imagine if thousands of us committed to doing an average of one chalk message a day. It would be newsworthy and the press would almost certainly be a great look for our movement.
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So, if you’re in, here are some suggestions:
Include a website URL in your chalk message directing people to a valuable resource like veganuary.com, freefromharm.org, humanefacts.org, or your local vegan group. You can also write “WATCH COWSPIRACY ON NETFLIX.” (Earthlings.com, unfortunately, is too cluttered now and you have to pay to watch it). Having a specific call to action is important.
If you’re especially outgoing, take videos of people stopping to read your messages. Ask people to share their reactions on video. People LOVE videos on social media, even more than pictures.
Not sure what to write? See the pinned post below for some examples of good messages. I like tieing my messages into the surroundings. For example, next to a big tree, you could write:
Tree Hugger?
Watch Cowspiracy
on
Netflix
Or, on a walking path…
Compassion
is the
Path
to a
Peaceful World.
Choose Vegan!
veganuary.com
Over a bridge….
Build
a
Bridge
to a
Kinder World
Choose Vegan!
onegreenplanet.com
Be creative and just have fun! It doesn’t matter if your first one is terrible. Picasso’s first artwork was proably no better than anyone else’s. Just know that tens, hundeds or thousands of people will see your message and that you *are* making a difference. The animals aren’t particiularly concerned with penmanship.
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For Chalk: If you’re a regular Amazon user, you can get a box of 48 colors for $5 as an add-on item (you must spend at least $25): http://smile.amazon.com/
Or, you can just order a small box: http://smile.amazon.com/
Office Depot or Target are also good places to find chalk. If anyone knows of a better place, please let me know.
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If anyone has suggestions for how to make this campaign better, please share them! Also, since this is taking a lot of my time, if anyone is great with social media, I could definiitely use a hand in this department.
Thanks so much 🙂