Dickson City Teen Wins peta2 Award for Setting an Example by Going Vegan

Activist and Scranton Prep School Honors Student Says That Animals Are ‘More Like Us Than People Realize’

For Immediate Release:
July 15, 2013

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

Dickson City, Pa. — Seventeen-year-old Scranton Preparatory School honors student Alyssa Napora doesn’t believe in harming animals, but she doesn’t just talk the talk. She successfully campaigned to end the policy that her school’s uniforms be made of wool, she stood front and center to protest the arrival in town of the notoriously cruel Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and she went vegan.

“After everything I learned, I just couldn’t think of any more excuses not to [go vegan],” she says. “It’s an amazing feeling to exist side by side with animals instead of above them. They’re more like us than people realize.”

Apparently, her empathy is contagious—she inspired her father to go vegetarian. If all that weren’t enough, Alyssa recently won a recipe contest held by The Times-Tribune for her vegan tofu scramble.

For her outstanding efforts to help stop animal suffering, Alyssa has received a Star Street Teamer Award from peta2, PETA’s youth division.

“Alyssa embodies every quality of today’s teens who are standing up for what they believe is right and helping to make the world a kinder place,” says peta2 Director Marta Holmberg. “Young people are leading the animal rights charge, and Alyssa is a trailblazer they can look to for inspiration.”

More and more young people are making the decision to go vegan after learning that animals raised for food on factory farms are kept in cramped, filthy conditions and are denied everything that’s natural and important to them. During slaughter, many have their throats cut while still conscious and able to feel pain.

Alyssa will receive a framed certificate and be added to peta2.com’s “Everyday Heroes” section. The peta2 Street Team is a group of youth activists dedicated to helping animals through in-person events, online campaigns, and social media. For more information, please visit peta2.com.