On a very cold Friday afternoon last week a group of us assembled to collect signatures for our current VW campaign, and also to give away pieces of our handmade, vegan cakes (made by our local volunteers the evening beforehand) to those who stopped for a chat! Occasionally we got a donation in exchange for a slice but mostly they served as an excellent extra persuading point for those curious about our stall and our campaign.
This was the first time I’ve ever been to a Greenpeace stall outside the Edinburgh University Main Library, and it was an interesting experience – we got over 120 cards signed in just two hours and had lots of very stimulating conversations with students and passers-by. Our local group hasn’t really had much of a presence at the university recently so it was a really worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours of our time, letting students know about our campaigns, or at very least become aware that there’s an active Greenpeace group in the student city!
We were really busy for the first hour or so, which made the cold seem less intense and the time go past quicker, but after 2pm it really quietened down for a while. However, just when I was beginning to give up hope of getting many more sign ups, a lecture finished in a nearby lecture theatre and we spent the next twenty minutes swamped by students going past to try to sign up!
Having so many local volunteers turn up to be able to help get signatures was fantastic and meant that few people got past us without being asked to sign our petition cards – the only downside being that we didn’t have enough tabards with us for everyone!
Hopefully we’ll go back to the University for another stall before too long – watch this space for more events taking place in Edinburgh soon!
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