Voices for Change: Parkland Students Meet with Supporters in Moorhead

The March for Our Lives Tour continued on Tuesday at Woodlawn Park

MOORHEAD, Minn. — When their bus pulled into Woodlawn Park, the students who came all the way from Florida were welcomed as if Minnesota was their home.

From there, the students joined in a celebration filled with singing, dancing, and discussion about the need for gun control.

It all started with the March for Our Lives in Washington DC on March 24.

“As that was happening, we were like ‘okay, but after the march, we don’t want it to just be a march, we want it to actually have substance, so as soon as the march is over, we’re going to start planning a summer tour where we go and have these conversations,” said Emma Gonzalez, one of the students from Parkland who went on the tour.

In just over a week, the tour has made stops in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Minneapolis.

But the popularity of walkouts in Moorhead made the city an ideal stop for the tour.

“There’s a college here, there are lots of high schoolers who were engaged in the walkout, and so we wanted to give them the opportunity to see that they’re not alone in their organizing and that we’re all in this together,” said Emily Wellen of the Minnesota Youth Collective.

In the next few days, the tour will make stops in Bismarck and at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and the students hope their impact will continue at those locations.

By speaking with the survivors from Parkland, young people in Moorhead are optimistic about the future.

“It brings a lot of hope. When it’s so repetitive and so characteristic in our country, we think there’s no end, no solution, but I think a spark was ignited with this,” said Laramie Jackson, a supporter of the March for Our Lives in Moorhead.

With encouraging young people to register to vote and make their voices heard, some are hopeful for the next generation.

“The Parkland students being here I think is amplifying what we already knew; it’s that young people are really engaged. We hear a lot that we don’t care, but that’s just not true,” said Wellen.

The students will also make more than 25 stops in their home state of Florida, stopping at every Congressional district.