UPDATED | Islanders preparing for Saturday marches

By Susan Riemer • January 17, 2017 1:30 am
Thirteen members of Vashon’s Second Saturday Knitters club made pussyhats — hats made from pink yarn that will be worn by those marching in The Women’s March on Washington, Saturday and those supporting it from afar. The group is sending the hats to a collection site in Virginia and also making some for interested islanders. (Katie Bunnell Photo)
Thirteen members of Vashon’s Second Saturday Knitters club made pussyhats — hats made from pink yarn that will be worn by those marching in The Women’s March on Washington, Saturday and those supporting it from afar. The group is sending the hats to a collection site in Virginia and also making some for interested islanders. (Katie Bunnell Photo)

UPDATE: As of Wednesday afternoon, seven buses had been chartered for the march. The organizers provided the following information for boarding:

The bus pickup stops for REGISTERED PASSENGERS:

* Bus barn, First 5-6 buses begin leaving at 7:55 (that means you start boarding 20 minutes before) with a few moments’ spacing, last 1-2 at 8:50)

* 204th Park & Ride

* Bank Road Metro stop

* Ober Park Park & Ride

NO FERRY DOCK BOARDING:

In kindness to the ferry workers, who are already putting up with a possibly unprecedented number of buses boarding, there is no official load-on at the ferry dock! If you have a reservation and show up there, it is very likely your seat will be gone!

The first 3 (maybe 4) buses will catch the 8:55 ferry (there is a ski school bus trip that may be on that ferry, and 4 is the maximum bus capacity of the ferry due to the number of life jackets). The second group of buses will be on the 9:35.

With protest marches taking place this inauguration weekend in Washington, D.C. and throughout the country, islanders are making plans to participate.

Locally, dozens of islanders have expressed interest in taking a chartered school bus from Vashon to and from the Seattle women’s march, which is expected to draw 30,000 people.

Islander Jenna Riggs, who designed the “Hate has no place here” posters and pins visible around the island, intends to be there.

The morning after the election, she said, she felt that decency had died. But she added that she could not let go of her belief that there were more caring, tolerant Americans than not.

“Marching allows me to show that I will not stand by and let hate rule, and that decency and acceptance are alive and well,” she said earlier this week.

She plans to be among those taking the school bus to Judkins Park, where the march is slated to begin.

Islanders Emmett Pickerel and Craig Berry are organizing the local transportation effort. Pickerel said he approached Berry about the idea, thinking of chartering a small school bus, and the idea has grown from there.

Berry, who manages school busses for First Student, is keeping track of how many people express interest in riding. Fifty people can fit on one large bus, he said, and if necessary, two busses will go.

While many island women are sticking close to home, others are traveling to Washington, D.C., including Donna Nespor and Rebecca Wittman.

Nespor said that she had been looking forward to seeing the nation’s first woman president elected. As that didn’t happen, she is looking forward to joining the Women’s March on Washington.

” I didn’t want to be on the sidelines or be perceived as neutral,” she said. “I feel a responsibility to stand up against the style of leadership Trump has shown and his vision of American that is against my personal values.”

Wittman, who owns the President of Me in downtown Vashon, shared similar thoughts. She said she feels compelled to go to the nerve center of national dialogue and experience the conversation personally. She added that like many others, she does not know how to be an effective citizen under the new administration.

“But I can’t stand quietly by, in my safe little island community, and let what feels like institutionalized indecency become the new normal,” she said. “I need to join what I hope is a proactive, effective chorus.”