Hi!

After many months of receiving nominations and for the last six weeks judging the hundreds of nominees, we are now at the exciting stage of announcing the winners of the Vegan of the Year Awards.

But, before we get to that, I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to make the awards vegantastic. Firstly, a big thanks to the sponsors of this announcement: Empower Total Health, Vegan Online, Cruelty Free Super and Pure & Green Organics.  VegansAreCool.com is chuffed to be supported by such ethical, pioneering businesses. Thank you so much!

A huge heartfelt thanks also to Shuang Wu for designing the winners’ certificates and virtual badges, the vegan judges - Mariana Tosca and Sundara De Silva – who judged a selection of categories and the advisory team – Tara Lomax, Sy Woon and Nami Gohil.

It goes without saying that choosing the winners was an extremely difficult process. There are so many vegans worldwide doing amazing things to promote the vegan lifestyle. Without a doubt, the winners below are among the best of the best. Luckily, we will be holding the awards annually, so there will be plenty of opportunities for more amazing vegan individuals, organisations and businesses to be recognised every year.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who submitted nominations. The purpose of the awards is to recognise vegans who are making outstanding contributions in their area of expertise and to inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

Continents and countries to which no awards were given indicates that we did not receive any nominations for that region. We hope to receive nominations from these in future.

And the winners are:

1. Vegan of the Year:  Victoria Moran  and Dr. Michael Greger.

These two outstanding individuals have been working for many years to increase awareness about the many benefits of the vegan lifestyle. Amazingly cool vegans!

2. Young Vegan of the Year: Jack Styles and Tamsin Dean Einspruch

Highly Commended: Nami Gohil, Jordan Turner, Mitch Dawes, Imogen Dawes and Genevieve Doyle

3. Outstanding Vegan Website: Our Hen House and GirlyGirl Army

Highly Commended: Vegan Yum Yum, Vegansaurus and Vegan Easy

4. Outstanding Animal Activist:

North America: Paul Watson

Highly Commended: Laurelee Blanchard, Nathan Runkle and Dr Randall Cannon

Oceania: Patty Mark, Pam Ahern and Philip Wollen

Highly Commended: Emmy James

U.K/Europe: Fiona Oakes and Dr. Andrew Knight

Asia: Maneka Gandhi

5. Outstanding Animal Rescue/Animal Rights Organisation: Tower Hill Stables and A Place of Peace (previously announced)

6. Outstanding Vegan Business:

Africa: Fry’s Vegetarian

Asia: Loving Hut

Oceania: Vegan Perfection

Highly Commended: Bounty Burgers, Funky Pies and The Cruelty Free Shop

U.K/Europe: Vegusto

U.S.A: Cynthia King Ballet Slippers and Evolotus PR

Highly Commended: Pangea

7. Outstanding Vegan Restaurant:

Asia: Veganburg - Singapore

Oceania: From Earth and Water (Gold Coast, QLD) and Sadhana Kitchen (Newtown, NSW)

Highly Commended: IKU (Sydney, NSW), 20,000 Cows (Lismore, NSW) and Bliss Organic Cafe (Adelaide, SA)

U.K/Europe: Loving Hut - Menton, France

USA: Follow Your Heart (Canoga Park, LA)

Highly Commended: Cafe Gratitude (LA), Spiral Diner (Dallas) and Vegetarian House (San Jose).

8. Outstanding Vegan Chef: Sophie Lapaire

Highly Commended: Chloe Coscarelli and Leigh Drew

9. Outstanding Vegan Athlete: Fiona Oakes and Patrik Baboumian

Highly Commended: Gemma Dryburgh

10. Outstanding Vegan Journalist: Jane Velez-Mitchell

Highly Commended: Katrina Fox

Outstanding Vegan Academic: Mariann Sullivan, Dr. Andrew Knight and Professor Patrick Brown

Highly Commended: Lara Drew and Jane Daly

Outstanding Vegan Author:  Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Will Tuttle

11. Outstanding Vegan Media Outlet:

Outstanding Vegan Television: Supreme Master Television

Outstanding Vegan Radio: Go Vegan Radio with Bob Linden

Outstanding Media Innovator: DawnWatch and Animal Rights Zone

Outstanding Vegan Filmmaker: Shaun Monson (Earthlings) and Aaron Scheibner (A Delicate Balance – The Truth)

Outstanding Vegan Magazine: Living Vegan

12. Outstanding Vegan Non-Profit Organisation:

Oceania: The Christchurch Vegetarian Centre and the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of QLD

U.K/Europe:  Vegan Society (U.K)

U.S.A: T. Colin Campbell Foundation and The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (P.C.R.M)

Our sincere congratulations to all winners!

In the coming months, we will be publishing posts with more details about the Vegan of the Year winners, including pics and links so you can discover for yourself how cool these vegan individuals, organisations and businesses really are. Interviews with the winners are here: http://vegansarecool.com/category/vegan-of-the-year/

To ensure you don’t miss the nomination dates for the 2013 Awards, subscribe to our ‘cool vegan notifications’ and never miss a post!

Thank you again to our kind sponsors and until next time have a vegantastic day!

Kathy Divine

Vegans Are Cool HQ is buzzing – and it’s all about the Vegan of the Year awards!

So what is it all about?

The Vegan of the Year awards strive to recognise the achievements of talented and dedicated vegans worldwide. A quick online search reveals countless vegans worldwide doing amazing things to help save the lives of innocent animals. We want to recognise these great people for the work they are doing in their area to promote the vegan lifestyle. Vegans deserve worldwide applause, so these awards are our way of saying ‘you are so vegan awesome’!

Who can enter?

Entry is open to all vegans worldwide and is free. You must have strictly followed the vegan lifestyle for at least 1 year with the intention of being vegan for life. For a definition of veganism, please see chapter one of Vegans Are Cool. The book can be downloaded for free.

What are the categories?

1. Vegan of the Year – male and female

2. Young Vegan of the Year  (under 18 years old) – male and female

3. Outstanding Vegan Website

4. Outstanding Animal Activist (must be vegan)

5. Outstanding Animal Rescue/Animal Rights Organisation (must have vegan and no-kill philosophy)

6. Outstanding Vegan Business

7. Outstanding Vegan Restaurant

8. Outstanding Vegan Chef

9. Outstanding Vegan Athlete – male and female

10. Outstanding Vegan Journalist/Academic/Author

11. Outstanding Vegan Media Outlet – ie. vegan magazine, vegan TV, vegan radio etc..

12. Outstanding Vegan Non-Profit Organisation. ie. Vegan societies, Vegan advocate organisations etc..

How do I enter?

All entries must be sent to vegansarecool@gmail.com with the subject header: Vegan of the Year awards. Please include the following in your entry:

1. In body of email – name, postal address and email address of the nominee (ie. the person who you think should win the award). Please include here the categories you want to be considered for. You can nominate for more than one category. All entrants are automatically considered for category 1. Vegan of the Year.

2. In a word document, please explain why your nominee should win. Entries should be between 100 – 2000 words max.

3. Please include 1 – 3 photos of the nominee.

What do the winners receive?

Vegan of the Year winners receive a certificate, a Vegans Are Cool bag and the worldwide admiration of the vegan community (arguably the best prize ever!) Outstanding Vegan Animal Rescue/Animal Rights Organisation receive the above prize plus a cash prize (the amount will be announced soon). In addition, all winners will be interviewed in a blog post on http://www.vegansarecool.com.

Who decides the winners?

Judging will be done by a panel of prominent vegans from around the world. The judges decisions are final.

What is the deadline for entry and when will the winners by announced?

All entries should be emailed to us by July 15th 2012 (GMT time). Winners will be announced on vegansarecool.com on August 31st 2012.

Please share this post with the worldwide vegan community on your blogs, podcasts, Facebook pages, Twitter and any other way you can think of! Cheers!

Any questions? Email vegansarecool@gmail.com.

Good luck! 

Update: The first winners announced!

http://vegansarecool.com/2012/07/23/outstanding-animal-rescueanimal-rights-organisation-winners/