Saturday, March 24, 6:30 PM; hundreds of students and families attended the Westport March For Our Lives Candlelight Vigil in Downtown Westport.  Following a similar march in Hartford earlier in the day, attendees marched down Post Road demanding gun regulation and honoring the lives lost in Parkland and in other incidences of gun violence in the US.

“To see such support, to see such energy, particularly among young people, really gives us a nice shot in the arm that we can continue to do what we do,” state representative Jonathan Steinberg said.  “Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it seems that we’re not making progress, but we see all these people behind us, we know we’ve got to keep fighting.  And, thus far we’ve been successful, we’re not giving up.”

Dispersed amongst the crowd were Staples students.  Ben Gross ’20 reflected on his experience. “I think the march was effective in showing how much this issue has impacted all of these people in Connecticut,” Gross said.  

However, Gross did not feel that there was a large enough student turnout, “I didn’t see a lot of students, as the majority of people were adults, which was kind of disappointing to me, but I still think it was a success, because I did see some students in the crowd,” Gross said.

During the march, attendees listened to Connecticut Senator Richard

Blumenthal, Fairfield RTM District 1 member Nancy Lefkowitz, Co-Chair of the Weston Young Progressive Club and state senate candidate Will Haskell.  

RTM district 4 representative Andrew Colabella attended the march. “If Congress wants to fight us on change, if the NRA wants to fight us on change, we’re going to keep going,”  Colabella said. “So in November, every one should register to vote: it’s the only way to make change. Speak to your political representatives, state representatives, state senators, even your governor, even the first selectman, even the RTM, all voices should be heard.”