Vegan pancakes for a cause

Last Saturday, July 9th, Mike and I went to the fourth-annual pancake breakfast sponsored by the Colorado Anti-Violence Program. This was our fourth time, and as always, we had an incredible time.

You might be thinking, well why would the gay vegans go to a pancake breakfast? Pancakes aren't typically vegan. Well that's the cool deal here: the pancakes are, and always have been, vegan!

They get it! An anti-violence group that gets it!

Let me back up. First a little bit about CAVP. Since 1986 the Colorado Anti-Violence Program has been dedicated to eliminating violence within and against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities in Colorado, and providing the highest quality services to survivors. They do an incredible job. The annual pancake breakfast is my favorite fundraiser of the year.

I'm sure many of you have either personally experienced or heard of a fundraising dinner or event for an anti-violence group, animal shelter, rape crisis line, etc., where you sit down to a meal that includes meat. At first thought this may not seem like a big deal.

The big deal is that you are financially supporting a group that works against violence, against cruelty to animals, against torture or intimidation, and yet they are supporting those very things by serving meat. This of course could become an entire series of blog posts, yet I'll keep this one to the point of how ecstatic Mike and I are to support a group that we love that entirely understands the connection and serves only vegan pancakes at their big, annual fundraising event.

And by the way, the pancakes are scrumptious. And all you can eat. And they are served right to your table! Oh my, how could we not love this event!

If you would like to know more about CAVP or even make a donation to support their life-changing work, here's a link to their site: http://www.coavp.org/

What can you do? Have a conversation with the shelter you work with or volunteer at and ask them if their annual event has a vegan menu. You can make a big difference in educating their cause. Imagine all of the bridge building and goodwill that can happen when organizations that work towards ending suffering of any kind make their events suffering-free!