In 2022, the hardworking team at VINE Sanctuary organized more than 200 educational events, all the while caring for more than 600 animals in the midst of climatic and economic circumstances that made everything more challenging.

We could not possibly have done it without the help of a huge community of care ranging from local volunteers to far-flung supporters. That includes you, so please take a moment to look over our 2022 Year in Review and feel good about your own contribution!

When Grace and her family arrived this spring, they didn't know who they could trust or what to expect. But the cows of the back pasture rushed to reassure and orient them. New friendships grew as Grace got to know other elders, Faith struck up a love match with Splash, and Liberty took up with a girl gang of similarly free- spirited young adults. That's how it goes here at our multi-species community where animals both receive and extend care and are respected as leaders.

Typically, when authorities seize roosters from cockfighting, only a few (if any) find their way to sanctuaries. This year, we worked with federal and state authorities to save 100 roosters who would otherwise have been euthanized. It's all part of The Rooster Project, our multi-year initiative to advocate for these beautiful but misunderstood birds.

It's not an optical illusion. Shadow the sheep really is a giant in comparison to the other sheep grazing behind her. No sooner had a family of Babydoll Southdown sheep moved in than we got a call about others in need of refuge. The influx of sheep has had a calming effect on the goats. One of the tiny sheep, Tuk-Tuk, has struck up a friendship with Max the alpaca. They make an odd and adorable couple!

“Val is a pig. She's very very big. She wears hay on her head like a wig. Her tummy's so round it touches the ground, and we're so grateful that she was found!" The preschoolers who recited that poem to Val (who grunted her approval) were not the only scholars to visit. Our summer scholar-in-residence, Rebecca Shen (seen here with her pal Marble), is a graduate student in landscape architecture who mapped how animals co-create the sanctuary.

The Carol J. Adams Ethos of Care Infirmary opened its doors this summer. Built in part with salvaged wood, this new infirmary will offer extra warmth to ailing animals in winter, year-round quarantine capacity, and a combined office and storage area for veterinary supplies. One of the newly rescued roosters loves to spend time in the office, so we call him Dwight. Thanks to Carol, for donating her 70th birthday to raise the funds for the barn last year, and to all who contributed to our collective barn-raising!

Every time we welcome someone to the sanctuary, we know that the day will come when we must say goodbye. Among the sad farewells of 2022 were three people who typified the ethos of our multispecies community.

Early in the year, we organized a month-long virtual conference for staff, volunteers, and board members at farmed animal sanctuaries. More than 300 attendees, representing 144 sanctuaries in 17 countries and 31 US states, as well as 24 educational institutions in 12 countries, gathered to listen to speakers and share their own ideas. Throughout the year, VINE provided consultations and education to other sanctuaries, particularly in the realm of rooster care.

In June, 5 times more people than the year before signed up for our annual Pride Month Vegan Challenge. In July, we expanded the challenge to an anytime 30-day Rainbow Vegan Challenge. Locally, we organized a Pride Month Vegan Picnic in June and a National Coming Out Day Speak Out in October. Virtually, we brought LGBTQ vegans into conversation to learn, strategize, and practice care together throughout the year.

Also this June, we debuted our new talk show and podcast, In Context, which airs on UnchainedTV and streams on all of the popular podcast platforms. The show amplifies the voices of activists, authors, artists, and scholars doing innovative work, thereby enhancing the ability of animal advocates to learn from each other and from animals.

All year long, the VINE Book Club brought vegan activists from around the world into conversation with each other and with authors of instructive books. Our own lectures at classes, conferences, and festivals carried insights arising at the sanctuary to scholars and activists who will put those ideas into action in their own work.

This September, more classrooms than ever before signed up for our virtual humane education program, Barnyard Buddies, which is sponsored by Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. 35 PreK through 5th-grade classes, including all of the 5th-grade classes in our local school district, will be learning about animals at the sanctuary throughout the school year. In addition to virtual field trips and monthly lessons, each class now receives worksheets and other educational activities to use in between sessions. That all adds up to hundreds of children learning empathy, compassion, and respect for differences every month.

Imagination was a focus of Reimagining Sanctuary, and that theme continued throughout the year. Imagination is an element of empathy. We also need imagination to envision a different world and devise strategies to make those dreams come true. And so, we incorporated art into humane education, brought art supplies to VegFests, included imaginative literature in book club, and stretched our own creativity when solving problems at the sanctuary. From an ingeniously designed cow lifting apparatus in the new barn to the free anti-dairy stickers we made available in partnership with the Louder Than Words art collective, imagination infused our 2022 and will continue into 2023.

All told, we organized or participated in more than 200 events this year, including 42 online education events for activists; 182 humane education sessions for kids; 12 talks at classes, conferences, and festivals; 13 on-site volunteer days; and 21 other events.

Everything we do is rooted in the on-site happenings at the sanctuary. The animals who find refuge and care at VINE also co-create a community from which we and others learn.

Thank you for being part of that community!

In 2023, we will extend humane education to include middle school, provide more rooster-related resources to sanctuaries, expand our outreach within LGBTQ+ communities, and launch a new anti-dairy initiative.

We hope we can continue to count on you just as the animals at VINE count on us.