CLAB Tribute & New Developments
The release of the 2025 CLAB calendar marks its 42nd consecutive year. The Cat Lovers Against the Bomb (CLAB) wall calendar serves as a way to reach out to others of like mind - and to cat lovers who are not yet against the [nuclear] bomb. The thousands of the Friends of CLAB, who have purchased this calendar year after year, make up an informal network of cat lovers who promote peace and social justice for all.
Helen Jenner of West Yorkshire, UK, coined the phrase 'Cat Lovers Against the Bomb' and requested a design from her friend, Alasdair Beal, for the first CLAB button. Beal had also designed badges for 'Real Ale Drinkers Against The Bomb', 'Special Branch Against The Bomb', 'Ageing Hippies Against The Bomb', and others. Brought to the United States by friends, the CLAB button inspired Esther Cope, DeCourcy Squire, and Bill Waters to start the CLAB calendar project in 1984 to benefit Nebraskans for Peace (NFP).
Until her passing in 1999, Betty Olson (spouse of founding NFP and original CLAB editorial committee member Paul Olson) served as the CLAB editor for 15 years, from its inception. Then Loyal and Mary Alice Park took over publishing the CLAB calendar, supported by 13 other members of the CLAB committee, until 2015.
After so many years, the energy to continue publishing the CLAB calendar was waning within the NFP organization, so board member Caryl Guisinger offered to publish the calendar as outside business in order to keep it from being laid to rest. Effective with the 2016 CLAB sales season, the reins were transferred to Caryl, under the business name Cat Lovers Calendar, and supported by Brittany, Susan, Roy, Lois, and Kathy.
Until her passing in 2021, Caryl continued to provide free calendars to NFP members, just as they had enjoyed during the time the calendar had been an NFP project. Since that time, her husband, Roy, has over the publishing. Although finances have made it impossible to provide hundreds of free calendars, Cat Lovers Calendar still provides them at a significant discount to NFP and other fund-raising groups.
We are deeply thankful to the former CLAB contributors for the thousands of collective hours that they spent developing the annual CLAB calendar.
We look forward to hearing from you as we bring you a special remembrance every single day through our unique calendars.
Through Caryl's extraordinary work, she added three new calendar themes to the CLC store front, including CLAB Contemporary - a color version for those desiring a more modern appeal, Cat Lovers for LGBTQA+ Rights, and Pups for Peace for progressive canine lovers.
Beginning with the 2025 calendars, we have renamed the CLAB Contemporary as "Cat Lovers for Peace" and shifted its focus to peace and social justice, while returning the CLAB Classic (Cat Lovers Against the Bomb) to a "nuke" focus. This adjustment was necessitated to keep anecdotes fresh without being overwhelming.
In order to develop these social themes alongside our faithful and favorite pets,
We prefer to publish pictures of the animal friends from our peace and social justice supporters, particularly with peace- and respect-related themes. Pictures in memoriam are also acceptable, and we accept electronic photographs year round for BOTH cats and dogs. Please read the criteria for Photo Submissions for color submissions. We can not use black & white photos because all our calendars are in color (or have a color version).
If your photo upload does not work, or to make suggestions, ask questions, provide important anecdotes, or maybe even suggest a great calendar idea, just Contact Us!
Diotima (Office Manager)