Vegan V-Day Dance

Who: VegWebmistress Laura Beck

What: Vegan Valentine's Day Dance

Where: Brower Center, Berkeley, Calif.

When: February 12, 2010

Why: To drink, dance, and possibly get lucky!

The Scoop: I love to eat, dance, and sometimes get a little cheesy (all vegan, of course!). The perfect place to do that? The Vegan Valentine's Day Dance! The event took place last Friday, and it was my chance to transport back to high school, except this time with people I actually like. Being able to celebrate Valentine's Day surrounded by folks who share my love and compassion for animals? There's nothing more romantic than that! Awww. Now, let's talk about what really matters: the food.

The event, organized by the extremely talented vegan event planner, Karine Brighten, was filled with the best snacks a gal could imagine, including vegan taquitos. Yes, VEGAN TAQUITOS. Flacos provided the goods, and those suckers didn't last long. That might be partly because I ate all of them.

Hungry party-goers hit the snack table (photo by Cathryn Lovecraft).

For dessert? Cupcakes and cookies from Sugar Beat Sweets and baklava and raspberry bars from Fat Bottom Bakery. Hello sugar high, time to dance you off! And dance we did, especially with Lady Gaga in heavy rotation. More please! I feel like I'm still on a sugar high! Please help!

Cupcakes are the best fuel for dancing (photo by Cathryn Lovecraft)

The evening ended with a raffle filled with more prizes than I've ever seen in my life. I swear, my eyes lit up like Scrooge McDuck when I saw all the goodies. I bought about a million tickets and walked away with a Tofu Xpress, a $60 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials, and a bag filled with Sjaak's chocolates and Parma!

VegWebmistress Laura and her valentine, Jonas, show off their loot (photo by Cathryn Lovecraft).

Maybe I'm the greediest person alive, but I seriously love to win stuff. It's especially rewarding when you know all the money raised from the dance went to Vegan Outreach. I can't think of a better organization to shake your booty for, and look forward to this becoming an annual event. I'll see y'all next year for dancing, prizes, drinks, dancing, candy, dancing, making out, and more dancing—all in the name of a great cause. Ain't vegan life sweet? I told you I like to get cheesy.

Starry, Starry Night

Who: VN Editorial Assistant Charlotte Gordon + VN Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig
What: Vegan Prom
When: Saturday, July 11, 2009
Where: San Francisco
Why: To dance the night away!

Who could forget the magic of prom night? The large stars hanging from the ceiling, the huge vegan ice-cream cake, and that really tall guy wearing that pink jumpsuit made of faux fur. I'm talking about first annual Vegan Prom put on by Vegan Outreach, of course. And somehow, Lyndsay and I were able to pull our awesome ensembles together in two hours flat for this event. Unfortunately, there was no limo waiting for us outside, and mommy and daddy weren’t in town to chauffeur us, so it was the typical mad rush to the bus stop—this time wearing heels. Guess what? Not one ankle was fractured. Amazing!

A medley of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits was bumpin’ when we arrived, and cookies and chocolate delights were abundant and just begging to be stuffed into our tummies and my pamphlet-sized purse for late night snackin’. Now, a resolution of mine has been to get at a Maggie Mudd ice-cream cake … somehow … someway. This evil plan must have been written all over my face that night, for Lyndsay and I were approached with the news that a two-layer ice-cream cake (bottom layer: chocolate, top layer: chocolate-mint goodness) was sitting neglected on a table, melting away. Of course it was our duty as fine upstanding vegans to help with the dilemma! We joined other prom-goers in devouring the delish dessert before it melted onto the pink table linens.

Oh no! It's melting!

We two-stepped our way through the night, mingled with some amazing folks from the Bay Area—such as Brian Grupe of Vegan Outreach (whom you may remember from our "20 Under 30" feature in our March+April issue) and VN Contributor Mark Middleton—and admired some '80's-inspired ensembles. Personal trainer Darren Middlesworth was also in attendance to see who would win his training session, which was up for grabs as a raffle prize.

Jesse and Erin pick the winning ticket!

We both anxiously held our tickets and hoped for the best. Who wouldn’t want a night for two at the Stanford Inn by the Sea? Or a romantic dinner for two prepared by chef Jesse Miner? Alas, our ticket numbers were not called, so we danced our way through the pain and pulled it together for a classic prom pic in front of the Starry, Starry Night-themed backdrop. So, yeah. Good food, good people, and $11,166 was raised to promote veganism—Vegan Prom was the bomb.

Me and Lyndsay, at the end of a magical evening