Women’s march on Pocatello

At the Bannock County Democrats meeting on Wednesday, one topic of discussion was the women’s march on Pocatello.

The women’s march will take place on Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. That’s the same time and place as the national women’s march on Washington, D.C.

Linda Leeuwrik is the organizer for the march. She said the goal is to promote equality and justice for everyone. She said it’s also a great opportunity for people who want to participate but could not go to D.C. or even the march in Boise.

She said the march focuses on women’s rights, but also on the rights of other minorities which are sometimes overlooked. She said while women’s rights have made great progress in the last several years, there is still room for improvement.

The march is non-partisan, so it is not sponsored by the Democrats.

The march will begin at 10 a.m. at Caldwell Park. Participants will march up down Center Street, left onto 5th Avenue up to Idaho State University, ending at ISU’s SUB building in the student union.

For those who want to participate but can’t march or walk that distance, there will be drivers to take some people along as well.

Leeuwrik said so far she’s been pleased by the support and she hopes there will be a great turnout.

“I’m really amazed at the response that we’ve gotten.” she said. “I mean, originally, i thought that we’d maybe get 50 people if we were lucky. I’m just really pleasantly surprised at how many of these people are responding positively and want to participate.”

Leeuwrik said so far on the event page on Facebook, about 426 people had responded showing an interest in participating. Of those, 116 had confirmed they would be marching.

Leeuwrik said organizers have also challenged elected officials to march with them.

More information on the march can be found on the Facebook event page.