News

Tonight (November 11) RAW will be hosting a film screening of the popular movie Food, Inc. as a part of Advocacy Week! It's at 7:00 in Ballantine 015. Come learn about our nation's food industry and the truth about factory farming. It will change the way you think about food! THe event will also include a letter writing campaign to our Indiana senators about important environmental and sustainability issues. See you there!

Tomorrow night (November 11) RAW will be hosting a film screening of the popular movie Food, Inc. as a part of Advocacy Week! It's at 7:00 in Ballantine 015. Come learn about our nation's food industry and the truth about factory farming. It will change the way you think about food!

Our next meeting is this Tuesday, November 10 at 7:00 in Ballantine 142. Hope to see you all there!

Thanks to everyone who helped make the Pet Costume Contest a success! We had four wonderful contestants and raised over thirty dollars and thirty pounds of dog food for Our Little Bit of Heaven Animal Sanctuary! Happy Halloween everyone!

Join us at Bryan Park on Halloween day, Saturday October 31st!

RAW's first annual Halloween Pet Costume Contest will be from 12-2. There will be food, toys for your pups, and amazing prizes to be won for the top three best-dressed animals! Registration is free but all donations of food or money will go directly to Our Little Bit of Heaven Animal Sanctuary- a no-kill shelter desperately in need of food.

We hope to see you Saturday!

The next RAW meeting is tomorrow, October 27 at 7:00 in Ballantine 142. We will be finishing up the planning for the Halloween Pet Costume Contest and hearing from a guest speaker about ways to get involved at PALS. Hope to see you then!

Please come to our meeting this Tuesday at 7 pm in room 142, Ballentine Hall, to help us plan our Haloween pet costume contest! We'd like input from as many members as possible, so please be sure to come, and bring your friends!

RAW's call out meeting is today, Tuesday September 15, at 7 pm in Ballantine Hall, room 142, and will include snacks! Please join us as we discuss:

-The Walk for the Animals

-Eggs-traordinary IU campaign

-Volunteer opportunities

-Possible Leadership opportunities

-Upcoming RAW projects (we would LOVE your ideas!)

We will also start collecting dues at tomorrow's meeting. Dues are set at $10 a semester or $15 for the entire year. You can pay in cash, or write a check made out to Revitalizing Animal Well-being.

Hope to see everyone there!

ALL IN for WILDLIFE!

An Earth Day Poker Tournament for Wildcare Inc.

Brought to you by RAW, Rachael's Café, Upland Brewing Co., and The Game Preserve

Go All In this Earth Day for a worthy cause! RAW, with the help of its sponsors, is hosting a No Limit Texas Holdem' poker tournament at 7:00 p.m. at Rachael's Café on Wednesday, April 22, to benefit Wildcare Inc., Bloomington's local wildlife rehabilitation organization.

Non-cash prizes (soon to be announced) will be awarded to several top finishers in the tournament. The buy-in is a minimum donation of $5 and can be made ahead of time by making a donation to RAW and bringing a print-out of your paypal receipt to the event. The buy-in can also be made at the door by cash or check. All proceeds for this event will be given to Wildcare Inc.

Unsure of how to play Texas Holdem' but still want to take part? Are your poker skills rusty? Come early at 6:30 p.m. for a FREE Texas Holdem' Lesson! Be sure to tell your friends to join you at Rachael's and have a great time for a great cause this Earth Day!

* What: $5 No Limit Texas Holdem' Tournament for Wildcare, Inc

* When: Rachael's Café: 300 E 3rd St

* When: Earth day, Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:00 p.m.

* Prizes: TBA, check back soon

Questions? Want to help out? Contact Joey at jmorwick@indiana.edu.

RAW is gearing up for our hottest event, so mark your calendar and join us for a night of fabulous live music -- featuring La Chansons -- and deliciously naughty, kissing-themed games!

What: Sealed with a Kiss

When: Friday, February 6, 2009 (time TBA)

Where: The Lodge, 101 E 6th St (above Subway)

Why: So we can kiss our way into a kinder world!

Singles and couples of all orientations are invited to dance (and kiss!) the night away, win awesome prizes, eat delicious food from local sponsors, and raise money and awareness to help bring an end to Canada's annual seal slaughter.

This unbelievably cruel and senseless commercial hunt is the world's largest slaughter of marine mammals, claiming the lives of over 350,000 harp and hooded seals each year. The seals, most of whom are young pups, are brutally clubbed to death for their fur, and the many who don't die immediately are literally skinned alive. Visit Protectseals.org for more information.

Rather than shut down in the face of such horrific cruelty, RAW thinks it's crucial to combat it with positivity and compassion. Sealed with a Kiss is a celebration of the positive connections we share with animals -- and of the considerable progress that has been made in the struggle to end this slaughter for good. So prepare to get your kiss on!

Contact Courtney (cwenners) if you'd like to get involved as a sponsor or volunteer.

RAW is launching a campaign to counteract the well-meaning but misguided efforts of Dollars for Delilah's, a student project aiming to help the business get "back on their paws," according to yesterday's IDS article. While RAW was deeply saddened to hear about the animals who died in the Delilah's fire, we think giving money to a business that sells animals for profit is a bad move. Our campaign will promote adoption and educate the public about where most pet store puppies come from. There are lots of ways to help, most requiring as little as an hour of your time! Please contact Kara (klkendal) if you'd like to get involved!

Right now, we're working on two main campaigns: Egg-Straordinary IU and Sealed with a Kiss. For more information on how to get involved with either project, contact Deborah or Courtney.

We'll be sudsing up Bloomington's stinkiest pups this Monday, September 1st, in the Briscoe Quad Circle Drive from 1-4pm! RAW is raising money for two very worthy causes: Bloomington Animal Shelter and our Egg-straordinary IU Campaign. Stop by to chat, lend a hand and get soapy, or get your precious pooch all cleaned up! Suggested donation: 10-15 dollars.

Let's make this summer EGGs-ceptional! Right now, RAW and the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) are hoping to partner with IUB dining services to help our campus transition to using cage-free eggs.

As you may know, laying hens are some of the most abused farm animals in our country - suffering horrifically from their deplorable confinement in "battery cages."

As the HSUS points out, "In most egg facilities, each hen is allotted 67 square inches of space - less than the size of a sheet of paper."

YIKES!!! That doesn't sound very fun. Please watch this 2-minute HSUS video of battery cages to get a sense of what these conditions really look like.

Or read more here:

http://www.hsus.org/farm/camp/nbe/

Are you are ready for a change yet? At RAW, we believe that we can do better for our nation's chickens. If you would like to join our campaign, please contact Courtney for more information: cwenners@indiana.edu. Let's make sure that IUB remains an innovator in sustainability and the humane treatment of animals.

Has pre-finals stress left you craving a natural high? RAW has what you need, so come get your fix!

What: Pet therapy for stressed-out students

When: Sunday, 4/27, 1:00-4:00

Where: Briscoe Quad

If you're interested in helping out at the event, contact Kara (klkendal).

Ready to get your kiss on? Join us for "Sealed With a Kiss" and help us smooch our way into a kinder world! We'll have sexy contests, amazing prizes, live music, free food, and more! There will be activities for the bold and the reserved, for singles and couples, for you and the seals! Admission is FREE, raffle tickets are $2 for one and $5 for three.

Saturday, Feb. 9th 7:00pm-12:00 am

The Lodge (101 E 6th St, the corner of 6th and Walnut)

Music by: Busman's Holiday, Either/Or, Fatted Calf String Band, Alex Baluna

Compassionate companies like Sage Advice Skin Care (www.sageskincare.com) have already shown that they care about seals by donating to Sealed With a Kiss. If you've volunteered to solicit donations, please download a flyer from our message board (http://www.indiana.edu/~iuraw/bb/) and start pounding the pavement!

Calling All Members!! Join us for our Sealed with a Kiss meeting this Thursday evening at 7:30 in Ballantine 247. We are going to discuss our time-line, organize some simple FUNdraising events, decide on hot celebrities to contact, and organize a list of local businesses and other student organizations that might partner with us.

In order to reserve a venue - which we needed to do like YESTERDAY - we desperately need some funds. So if you can raise $10 or more to bring on Thursday, the seals would be most appreciative.

PLEASE COME OUT--This will be so much fun!

We're now in the planning stages of two of our most exciting projects! Get ready to kiss for a cause at Sealed with a Kiss, our first annual kissing marathon. This event is a sexy, savvy way to raise awareness and money to help the fuzzy victims of Canada's annual seal slaughter. We're also getting ready to make IU more egg-straodinary than ever by teaming up with the Humane Society of the United States in order to convince our dining services to switch to cage-free eggs! Both of these awesome projects need your help, so get in touch with either Courtney or Deborah if you want to get involved!

We'll be sudsing up Bloomington's stinkiest pups this Sunday, October 7th, in Dunn Meadow from 2-6pm! RAW is raising money for a very worthy cause: Bloomington Animal Shelter. Stop by to chat, lend a hand and get soapy, or get your precious pooch all cleaned up! Suggested donation: five dollars.