Group leaves Columbia for women’s march in Washington D.C.

A charter bus filled with 55 women and men left Columbia Friday afternoon to participate in the Women’s March on Washington in Washington D.C. Saturday.

“We’re just saying, ‘Here we are, and there are a lot of us. You will not be able to not pay attention to us,'” said Carol Tucker Rogers, who helped organize the bus trip to D.C.

Ten other buses were scheduled to leave Missouri Friday. Organizers estimate that more than 1,000 people from the Show Me State will be marching in nation’s Capitol on Saturday.

The Women’s March on Washington (WMW) was organized by women across the country shortly after the presidential election.

The following statement was under the “Our Mission” section of its website:

“The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.”

The group leaving Columbia Friday packed light for their quick trip to D.C. Many just brought a change of clothes and pillows for the bus ride.

“I just thought it’d be really cool to stand up for what I believe in and to be around so many other people who understand what I think and feel about the election and just in general politics,” said 13-year-old Genny Harline, one of the youngest marchers on the bus from Columbia.

She was traveling to D.C. with her older sister, Kate.

“I think we’re all just looking for a way to process what’s happened and a way to move forward, and we’re working on that together,” said Kate Harline, 21.

Christine Collins first traveled to Columbia from Tampa, Florida, to then take the 16-hour bus ride to D.C. with her friend Jeanne Taylor.

“The message, for me, is that we will be watching,” Collins said. “We believe in women’s equality, women’s rights and we will be watching. We’re not going to be quiet, we’re not going to be silent.”

“We want the incoming administration to know that half our country are women and that we are important,” Taylor said. “I hope that they take into consideration the decisions that they make and the impact that it has on the women of this country.”

While organizers like Rogers said the march was in response to the outcome of the presidential election, she said Saturday’s march in D.C. was not a protest against President Donald Trump.

“We’re not anti-Trump. This is we love America, and we’re going to fight our hardest to make America as wonderful as it is,” Rogers said.