The Lowell River Festival

[Boston] On August 16, Golden Year 5 (2008), fellow initiates from the Boston Center were blessed to participate in the Lowell Riverside Festival, a yearly event organized by the Cambodian community to share their culture and to bring together their community. They had two booths: one was informational for displaying Master’s various publications and the other was designated for food. Surrounding the booths were posters urging people to be veg and go green to save our planet.

The thousands of passersby were greeted with the SOS flyers/DVDs, Alternative Living and Supreme Master TV flyers as well as the vegan recipe booklets. To those who were curious about Master and Her teachings, the initiates took the chance to explain in detail. People who tasted the delicious vegan food ate in disbelief, and some of them even came back for seconds and then thirds! The initiates introduced them to the health and environmental benefits of the compassion plant-based diet.

The Holden Day Fair

On August 23, thousands of people in high spirits were drawn to a 29-year-old tradition in the town of Holden, MA -- the Holden Day Fair. It was a beautiful and bright sunny day with clear blue skies. There were friendly smiles, kind helping hands and laughter everywhere.

In order to spread the urgency of global warming, Boston fellow initiates actively distributed SOS flyers/DVDs, vegan recipe booklets, and Supreme Master TV information. Many people were appreciative of their noble efforts. At their booth, visitors were eager to converse with them about global warming, vegetarianism, the green movement and topics pertaining to spirituality. Two little boys were especially mesmerized by two of Master’s books, God Takes Care of Everything and The Dogs in My Life. Touched by their pure expression, the initiates gave them the books as presents. Both boys held the books tightly, not wanting to lose their precious gifts.

The Boston initiates thank Master for Her blessings and these opportunities to pass along the urgent messages of global warming. They hope more people will wake up to embrace the compassionate, Earth-sustaining lifestyle of the plant-based diet. 

[Hawaii] On Saturday, August 23, Golden Year 5 (2008), local initiates took part in the Family Fun Fair Community event in Pearl City, Hawaii. During the fair, the initiates distributed the SOS Global Warming flyers, DVDs and related informative materials to the general public while wearing the “SOS Be Veg, Go Green, and Save the Planet” shirts. Several teachers who visited their booth said they would take the information to pass out to their students. The initiates felt most rewarded when a high school student asked for several copies of the DVDs, flyers and related information about global warming and the vegetarian diet so that he could write an article for his school newspaper. At the closing of the event, a local newspaper cameraman visited every booth and took a photo of the participants and their display area. The photos will be published in the magazine, Midweek, the largest subscription-free magazine in Honolulu. With Master’s grace, everything went very smoothly and successful.

[Island of Oahu] On the weekends of September 27 and 28, October 4, 5 and 11, Golden Year 5 (2008), the Hawaii Center initiates participated in the Ho’olaulea Community Fair at Windward Community College, the Splendor of China Event at the Neal Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall, and the Kava Festival at the University of Hawaii on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. These three events drew over 30,000 people.

World-famous chef Martin Yan (center)

The initiates offered free vegan food samples and distributed the Alternative Living flyers, SOS flyers, SOS DVDs and various scientific materials concerning global warming. A lady at the Ho’olaulea Community Fair was so grateful to find the initiates’ booth that she said, “I’m so glad I met you ... if not, I might have starved today because you are the only ones who have vegetarian meals here … thank you so much for all that you do.” Her entire family is vegan, including her three-year-old daughter. At the Splendor of China Event, the world-famous chef Martin Yan gave great compliments on the initiates’ delightful veggie treats. A local TV news reporter, Ms. Stephanie Lum was shocked to learn of the correlation between the plant-based diet and the environment.

Honolulu’s Mayor, Mufi Hannenman graced the initiates’ booth at both events and expressed his appreciation to Supreme Master Ching Hai and Her Association for promoting vegetarianism. He enjoyed the vegetarian food, watched Supreme Master TV, and even took with him several articles, flyers and the information concerning global warming and the vegetarian diet. The city council woman Ann Kobayashi, really enjoyed the free vegan food samples and during our interview with her, she encouraged everyone to eat more plant-based meals and to reduce their meat consumption.

Honolulu’s Mayor Mufi Hannenman with fellow initiates.	Honolulu’s City Council woman Ann Kobayashi

At the Kava Festival, it seemed that almost half the people who visited our booth were already vegetarians or eating more plant-based meals. During the live concert performances, the lead singer of a band encouraged all of the attendees to stop eating meat! There was also a person from the country of Tonga who asked us to come to his village and share the message of vegetarianism and climate change with his people. Also, University of Hawaii college director, Mr. Lui S. Paulo, invited us to share this important information with the students and teach the campus chefs how to cook more vegan dishes! The highlight of the festival occurred when a rainbow completely surrounded the sun for 30 minutes, giving everyone an amazing feeling of love and awe of God’s beauty.

All initiates who participated in these events witnessed the positive change that is taking place on the Island of Oahu. They sincerely thank Master and hope that through Her love, blessing and support, Hawaii will soon open its first vegetarian restaurant with the noble intent of serving people wholeheartedly with delicious, nutritious, plant-based meals for the betterment of our Earth.

[San Diego] The Adams Avenue Street Fair in San Diego is claimed to be the largest music festival in Southern California, boasting 100,000 visitors for the two-day event. The latest one took place on September 27 and 28, Golden Year 5 (2008), and our Association members from the San Diego, Los Angeles and Fresno Centers took part in this wonderful occasion.

There was a constant flow of guests to their booth, which was decorated with big banners of “Be Veg, Go Green, Save the Planet” SOS climate change posters and Master’s pictures. To help promote the message more effectively, the initiates provided 500 “Go-Veg” T-shirts, 2,000 Supreme Master TV pens and hundreds of DVDs of The Climate Change International Conference held in West Hollywood as free gifts to the festival-goers.

Five hundred signatures were also collected for a petition letter to the US Congress and the California State Congress, promoting the vegetarian/vegan diet as the best solution for global warming.

During the two-day fair, fellow initiates all felt immense blessings from Master. A lady who is an animal lover was very attracted to The Birds in My Life book. She kept saying, “It’s such a beautiful book!” So a sister initiate lovingly gave her own copy to this lady as a gift, which made her really happy. When a gentleman picked up Master’s Aphorisms book, he said it was exactly what he was looking for. Many non-vegetarian visitors were interested in vegetarian cooking, nutritional balance and related information.

It was very encouraging to see that about 30% to 40% of the visitors were already vegetarian! The Supreme Master TV news team interviewed many of them to share their good examples with the world.

[Rochester] When does NASA predict the Arctic ice will melt? The answer: “Summer of 2012,” evoked a shocked response from visitors to the Artwalk Alive! Outdoor Festival held on September 14, Golden Year 5 (2008), to celebrate the performing arts. This question was part of an interactive quiz designed by local fellow initiates to raise awareness about the impending crisis of climate change.

Most people were eager to receive more information and were happy to learn about the different advantages of reducing meat consumption by 20%-50%, and by becoming completely vegetarian. Other questions included: According to the UN, what is the most effective thing you can do to fight climate change? What industry produces more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined? If the fate of the world was in your hands, what would you do?

Surprisingly, we received invitations from two organizations to speak about the connection between climate change and the diet. We are glad to have this opportunity to share with professional societies, networking groups, volunteer organizations and business owners this urgent issue and the importance of being vegetarian.

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