Rehoboth March For Our Lives organizers say thanks

We want to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who was involved in the Rehoboth Beach March For Our Lives event March 24. When we decided to organize a local march about three weeks ago, we initially thought we would have approximately 100-200 people. On Saturday, we were absolutely inspired and energized with the show of community support at the event. We marched with about 1,500 people from Stockley Street Park to the Rehoboth Bandstand, in support of the hundreds of thousands of others in this country demanding real solutions to effectively address the issues of school safety and gun violence.

Our spirits were lifted with hope as we listened to our student speakers and musicians. Outstanding speeches were given by Odel Ozbay, a 13-year-old who attends Providence Creek Academy in Clayton; Jalyn Powell, a 21-year-old senior at Delaware State University; Jasmine Finney, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Beacon Middle School; and Josh Hoffpauir, a junior at Sussex Technical High School. Jinni Forcucci, the 2018 Delaware Teacher of the Year from Sussex Tech, also gave a passionate and moving speech from a teacher's perspective.

In addition, we listened to heartfelt musical performances by Denise Matthews, a teacher at Beacon Middle School, and Paul Branca, a para-educator at The Sussex Consortium; and Elena Louvis, a 16-year-old sophomore who played keyboard and sang on the Bandstand. The morning was kicked off by a glorious soprano of the national anthem performed by 12-year-old Sara Freih, who attends Worcester Preparatory School.

We were heartened by the opening speeches from U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, whose daughter, Maggie Coons, also spoke to the group; Ernie Lopez, Delaware Republican state senator; and Pete Schwartzkopf, our Speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives.

We are deeply grateful to City of Rehoboth Beach Mayor Paul Kuhns, Communications Manager Krys Johnson, Corey Groll who managed the sound at the Bandstand, and Lt. Jaime Riddle as well as the entire Rehoboth Beach Police Department and the members of the state police who all worked closely with us to ensure a safe and successful event. We could not have asked for a better show of support from our town.

There are many, many other people who contributed to the success of this event, from the 20-plus volunteers who showed up in the early-morning cold and set up T-shirt tables, handed out signs, gave directions to participants, and stayed late to clean up both the park and the Bandstand. A very special thanks to Will Stephens of 4 Most Sound, who provided all the speakers, microphones, generator, and tent at Stockley Street Park; Carolyn Watson who photo-documented the event; Patrick Gallagher who did videography, and TJ Redefer, who provided amazing drone footage from the sky - all of whom donated their skills and services that day.

When we read the mission statement for March For Our Lives, we were moved to action. School safety is not a political issue. There cannot be two sides to doing everything in our power to ensure the lives and futures of children who are at risk of dying when they should be learning,playing and growing. We are all responsible for making sure our students have safe school environments in which to learn.

So, in closing, what do we do next? We stay in engaged. We don't go back to sitting on the sidelines. We write letters to our legislators. We work together, not against each other, in helping craft policies to keep our kids safe.

We register to vote and we go vote every single time we can. We treat each with kindness, for although we may have different perspectives, we can certainly find common ground on this most important issue.

Together, we can follow these students' lead in saying once and for all, Enough is Enough.

With much gratitude from three moms,

Sarah Healy
Elyse Moore
Kathleen Schell
organizers, March For Our Lives – Rehoboth Beach