HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) — Saturday’s national March for Our Lives — one response to the rise in school shootings — has dozens of Michigan sites. Holland walkers meet at 11 a.m. at Centennial Park.
Saugatuck High junior and student council secretary Georgie Richardson-Smaller helped organized the effort nearest her, which starts with a 10:15 a.m. Saturday service at Douglas United Church of Christ on Wall Street, with include readings and music from the Persisterhood Choir.
The 11 a.m. march starts at Beery Field in Douglas, moving to Saugatuck High, where others will briefly speak, Richardson-Smaller said.
She volunteered to help organize the march after being shocked by school shootings, especially the Feb. 14 incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
“I believe really strongly about this movement. I was really just shocked at the Parkland shootings and the shootings previous to that and since then. It’s really deeply sad that a movement like this has to exist,” Richardson-Smaller said.
Her Saugatuck High classmates have opinions on the Second Amendment and gun ownership that span the spectrum, she said, noting that they, like a growing number of Americans, do agree on certain safety measures, such as banning bump stocks and “making changes to make it still accessible to sane people, people who should be allowed to own a gun, but taking that away from people that shouldn’t be allowed to own a gun, people that might commit atrocities, like school shootings.”
She doesn’t expact everyone at the march to agree on banning guns and hopes to see a large bipartisan turnout, one that can begin working on common-sense legislation.
The Douglas march organizers hope to fund a Saugatuck High’s new Fearless Leaders scholarship.
