This Thanksgiving, we would like to express our gratitude to all our amazing community members!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we would like to give thanks to the phenomenal community members who help power our work. And what better way to do so than through a Vegan Award Ceremony! From Project Animal Freedom’s Volunteer of the Year to St. Louis’ Vegan Mom of the Year, we will now recognize exceptional local activists who have contributed meaningfully toward our vision of a fully vegan Midwest by 2056.
Project Animal Freedom Volunteer of the Year
Troy Stoffey
It is with great pride that we introduce a new category to our award ceremony this year: PAF Volunteer of the Year. This award recognizes someone who has displayed exceptional commitment to advancing our mission through a volunteer capacity, someone who courageously upholds our values of justice, love, respect, and compassion for all, regardless of species, and who commits themselves wholly to the noble cause of animal liberation.
The individual we will recognize tonight has burst onto the St. Louis scene in just the past six months, quickly cementing himself as one of our most essential, dynamic volunteers. He has filled our organization with verve and renewed commitment to vegan joy and changemaking for animals, bringing new ideas and energy to a team happy to accept and build off of them.
This individual is unusually young, and I view the bestowing of this award as an investment not only in his future career, but more importantly the future of the broader movement we serve. This individual serves on the Youth Advisory Board of the world’s largest animal rights organization, and at the young age of just 17, he has made important strides toward a more animal- and vegan-friendly world.
Our team at Project Animal Freedom is proud to bestow our highest honor at this year’s Vegan Award Ceremony to Troy Stoffey, PAF’s Volunteer of the Year!
Project Animal Freedom Donor of the Year
Gabe Luzynski
If volunteers are the lifeblood of the nonprofit sector, then donors are the backbone of our work at Project Animal Freedom. Without them, we could not fund our many activities: as the common refrain goes, no money, no mission!
Tonight, we want to recognize a donor who has truly budgeted for animal liberation, ensuring we have the financial resources to realize our mission of building a fully vegan Midwest by 2056 more effectively than ever before.
When funding has gotten tight, this donor has dipped into his personal funds again and again, gifting PAF thousands of dollars when we needed it most. To this day, he remains our top Movement Builder, donating $150/month to sustain our vegan outreach, advocacy, and activism.
He even gives thousands of dollars each year to help the environment, at-risk youth, disabled veterans, and people with cleft palates, cancer, and other medical conditions, donating to such organizations as Operation Smile, American Cancer Society, Shriners Hospitals for Children, No Baby Blisters Charity, Cal Farley Boys Ranch, Change.org, Sandy Hook Promise, Anthropocene Magazine, and the Planetary Society.
His generous spirit, his big heart, and his fierce determination to build a kinder world are all attributes we should all aspire to.
Project Animal Freedom Member of the Year
Hera Gerber
Volunteers and donors aren’t the only drivers of progress at Project Animal Freedom; so, too, are our members who support us day in and day out.
There is one community member tonight who has served valiantly in all three capacities: as an activist changemaker, as a generous benefactor, and as a veritable community pillar.
Since our earliest days, this individual has shown exceptional, unwavering commitment to our community, our core values, and the change we intend to inspire in the world around us. She has attended over 100 community-building, activism, and outreach events with us here in St. Louis. She has served as an emblem of both loving-kindness and impassioned dissent, fighting for a world where all beings live safe, happy, and free from needless oppression. She is a social justice advocate extraordinaire, and her compassion knows no boundary.
We are proud to recognize Hera Gerber as Project Animal Freedom’s Member of the Year!
St. Louis Leadership Award
Alex Ozbolt
Our next award recognizes one outstanding board member from our St. Louis chapter advisory board, someone who has made extensive contributions to board culture and organizational impact while cultivating vegan joy and team solidarity.
After consulting with our advisors, fellow board members, and other team members, there is one individual who sticks out beyond all the rest in this category. This individual has contributed over 200 hours of volunteer service to Project Animal Freedom since rejoining the team in March of this year and raised thousands of dollars for the organization through a generous matching program at his company. He has played an absolutely critical role in overseeing our events, running our campaigns, and mentoring our leaders. His help with STL Vegan Market remains invaluable to this day, and he is dedicated to taking PAF and our impact to the next level in St. Louis and beyond. He even paid his own way to the Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit in LA this year, successfully representing Project Animal Freedom at the global level.
His name is Alex Ozbolt, AKA Wizard of Ozbolt, we are proud to recognize him for his superb leadership this year!
St. Louis Business Impact Award
Our next award recognizes a business that has gone above and beyond to serve our local vegan community, a business that reflects our values of compassion, sustainability, and animal rights.
This business has done so much to help PAF that not a year has passed where they didn’t deserve it. They have hosted dozens of impactful events with us, not only strengthening PAF, but our broader community and movement for a fully vegan Midwest by 2056.
This business is moreover the most decorated vegan restaurant in St. Louis. They were named one of the top 100 best vegan restaurants in the nation by Yelp, recognized for having the Best Street Food in Missouri by 5 Reasons to Visit, and named one of America’s 26 Best Food Trucks by Food Network.
They may no longer have their food truck, but their impact endures and grows each and every year, leaving an indelible impact on our community. Please join us in showing our appreciation to Sid and Krupa Panchal of Bombay Food Junkies!
STL Vegan Market Vendor of the Year
STL Vegan Market has become the largest vegan event in St. Louis, reaching over 730,000 St. Louisans, generating over 2.4 million views, and attracting over 5,700 attendees this year alone. But it would not be the awareness-raising and community-building powerhouse it is without the incredible vendors who make it possible.
This year, we would like to commend one vendor in particular for their outstanding service to the market and our local vegan community. This vendor has cemented themselves as a St. Louis staple, serving our community delicious, wholesome food for over a decade. They were one of just three vegan restaurants to sponsor the market, aiding our tremendous growth this season. And when someone passed out from heatstroke at one of our markets, they sprang into action and revived that person, sending them home safe and sound.
It has also been our enormous privilege to get to know the two owners of this fine establishment over the past year, working alongside them not only at markets, but also at several events they have co-hosted with us. Please join us in recognizing Seedz Cafe as our STL Vegan Market Vendor of the Year!
Project Animal Freedom Mom of the Year
Tiffany Scott
Let us conclude with a quirky award befitting of the organization that invented Vegmas: Vegan Mom of the Year!
This award recognizes the central role that family has played in the creation, growth, and impact of Project Animal Freedom, and it captures the contributions of one woman in particular, a woman who saved PAF more than any other, Jenna Luzynski, without whom PAF simply would not be.
This year we would like to honor another mom who has risen to the occasion to serve her community. This mom has rushed to rescue her child from asthma attacks and even made hard decisions about which events of ours to volunteer at while her son was in the hospital. She has joined us at over half a dozen events this year, offers a wealth of professional experience to PAF, and maintains such a positive, helpful outlook.
Please join us in recognizing Tiffany Scott as Project Animal Freedom’s official Mom of the Year!
Excellence in Catering Award
Our Vegan Award Ceremony wouldn’t be complete, however, without recognizing a phenomenal local caterer that has done more to help PAF than virtually any other.
They have always been prompt, professional, helpful, supportive, and caring toward us and our needs. They have not only blessed us with the finest vegan Thanksgiving meal in St. Louis, but with the sort of steadfast support and loyalty that is rare to find in the catering industry.
We have hosted nearly a dozen events with them over the years, from Vegmas and our vegan drag show to several fish-free fries and our Vegan BBQ Fest.
Please join us in recognizing the recipient of our first-ever Excellence in Catering Award, Adina’s Vegan Cuisine!
We are so incredibly proud of our community and the amazing people who compose it. Congratulations to all our awardees, and happy Thanksgiving!
