Each student held a handmade sign. The youthful handwriting and marker-inked pictures of penguins, turtles and polar bears belied the gravity of their message.
“Love your planet. Our life matters. Think about your life and children,” Edgartown School fifth grader Kahlia Nascimento’s sign said in Portuguese.
There were more than 800 March for Our Lives demonstrations around the world Saturday, including one at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven. About 150 people turned out.
On a day when hundreds of thousands marched across the country as part of the Women’s March on Washington, Islanders gathered to add their voices to the protest.
A diverse group of more than 90 people marched from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs Saturday in a peaceful protest to call attention to recent deaths of African American men.
On Thursday, Jan. 1, beginning at noon, a march will be held in downtown Vineyard Haven to draw attention to violence against African Americans as well as police officers. “People will be holding both signs: ‘All Lives Matter’ and ‘Black Lives Matter,’” said Erik Blake, Oak Bluffs chief of police.