Wrangell women join sister marches nationwide

Joining millions of other women and men estimated to have marched worldwide on Saturday, 20 residents of Wrangell held a Women's March of their own downtown on February 21.

The Women's March on Washington was a daylong event emphasizing that "women's rights are human rights," following the swearing-in of President Donald Trump the previous day. The group which organized the event cited the divisive rhetoric of the past election cycle as the underlying cause of the march.

"The march wasn't about who voted for whom or what religion you are," explained Vivian Prescott, who organized the Wrangell march. "It was about women's rights and caring what happens in your community and beyond."

She recounted that the local event almost hadn't happened. It was announced at short notice the morning of, after she decided on the fly to put one together.

"Someone else would do it,' I told myself. No one did. I checked (Facebook) on the morning of the March and saw marches from around the world and saw all the women's posts," Prescott said.

Former residents, friends and relatives were involving themselves in similar marches, some at the main one held in Washington D.C., downtown in Seattle, or even as close as in Sitka and Juneau. Marches were held in tandem abroad as well, even off the uninhabited coast of Antarctica.

Prescott wanted to join them, but was unsure how.

"I asked on a local FB community page if a march was happening on our island. Before that I figured I would go down to the waterfront and post a pic of me on Instagram holding a sign. Just me," she explained.

One turned to two as interest picked up, agreeing to meet by the Nolan Center green space. They would walk down to the Stikine Inn coffee shop and become their own mini-march. But the message meanwhile coursed between acquaintances' profile pages and message boards, and in only two hours' time the turnout was better than Prescott expected on arrival. The group mainly included women, with one man and children, some wearing pink and others bearing signs. As with any gathering on the island, there were plenty of dogs along as well.

Together they walked through town in the afternoon, waving at cars and passing shops.

Reaching their destination for coffee, Prescott said a few women stayed on to discuss what activities could be done to better the community. Several are already planning on partaking in the "10 Actions, 100 Days" challenge posted by the Women's March on Washington, the group which organized the march.

The publication The Atlantic (https://goo.gl/Bv9ZgI) estimates Saturday's demonstration may have set a record for the country. A data count of available figures put together by researchers Erica Chenoweth of the University of Denver and Jeremy Pressman at University of Connecticut has the estimate at a range of between 3.2 million and 4.78 million in the United States, with between 470,000 and 680,000 participating at the main march in Washington D.C.