MN College Leafleting Day: A Huge Success

The idea for this event came up last winter in an effort to escalate our college leafleting efforts. One issue CAA has found with college leafleting is that many perceive leafleting as an opportunity without a deadline. There is never any urgency to leaflet any particular day. Also, it can be difficult for new volunteers to go out by themselves to leaflet and feel as if they are truly changing anything for the better.

MN College Leafleting Day was designed to overcome these challenges. The idea was to leaflet at every college in the Twin Cities area, and many others statewide, for an entire day, with new and old volunteers. This way leafleters could experience being part of a large influential group that’s truly making a difference. (It gives people a fun reason to take the day off of school or work, too.) There was also a post-event picnic at a park to give volunteers a chance to come together at the end of the day to share their unique experiences with each other—and enjoy awesome vegan pizzas, raffle prizes, and games!

Not only did this event get a vast number of leaflets out, but it helped volunteers get out and start leafleting. Many had not leafleted before, and even more had never leafleted at college campuses. This day provided the opportunity to see how easy it is to do. Some of the activists in other cities were with local animal rights groups, and we will be encouraging them to make leafleting a regular activity of their group.

This was a challenging event to organize,, but it was well worth it, and we learned a lot. We now plan on doing this as a regular event, annually or perhaps every semester.

Minnesota Schools Participating in Leafleting Day

• Anoka Ramsey Community College: 200
• Augsburg College: ~550
• Century College: 500
• College of St Catherine (a.k.a. St. Kate's): 47
• Elk River High School: 10 (got kicked off)
• Hamline University: 754
• Macalester College: 198
• Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC): 250
• Minneapolis College of Art and Design: 10 (for some reason there were almost no students on campus this day)
• Normandale Community College: ~600
• North Hennepin Community College: ~10 (got kicked off)
• St. Cloud State University: 900
• St Cloud Technical College: 70
• St. Thomas University: 550
• U of MN Duluth: 125
• U of MN Morris: 40
• U of MN Twin Cities: 4,750 (this includes the East Bank, West Bank, and St. Paul campus)
• Winona State University: ~20




• Total # of schools: 17 colleges, 1 high school
• Total # of volunteers: 55+
• Total # of leaflets: ~9,584

Volunteers will still conduct leafleting at Mankato State in honor of Leafleting Day, since they did not receive their leaflets in time.