About Me

Submitted by Dtoro on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 11:09am.

Hi, my name is Derek Toro. I helped to create this website. I became a vegetarian about 8 years ago and became fully Vegan about 6 years ago. I went fully Vegan after hearing Howard Lyman speak one summer in Charlottesville, VA. For many years before becoming Vegan I was a Chef in many restaurants in and around the Charlottesville area. About 8 years ago however I made the switch into the IT world and haven't looked back since. I still love to cook however, it is all just Vegan food now :) I have been living in the Richmond area for about 2.5 years now, but before that I lived for a short while in northern Virginia, but mostly grew up and went to High School in the Charlottesville, VA area.

When Elise contacted me about starting an Animal Rights group in this area I was very excited as I have been looking a way to get involved in the community, especially since it involved something I am very passionate about; animal rights. I hope we can continue to grow this group here in the Richmond, VA area so that we can begin to actually make a difference in the most important place to me: my own backyard :)

Derek

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newcomer

Submitted by shecargrady on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 11:44am.

Hi everyone. I am Sherrie Carter-Grady, and have met a few of you at Alan furs and also Ringling. I just now was able to sign in with my new username and password. I am excited to be a member of this wonderful group.

I am probably a little older (45) than a lot of you, and have only been vegetarian for a little over 1 year. I am slowly working my way to being full on vegan. I have a husband and 2 kids and they unfortunately are not vegetarian (yet!) so it is a little bit of a struggle but worth every minute!

I can only say how much I admire you young folks about how committed you are to this cause and only wish I had gotten started much sooner. But later late than never!

I look forward to seeing you all at the potluck! PS I posted this under that blog as well, but thought maybe I should post it here as well. This is the first time I have been on the site, so please forgive!