Chicagoans come home from Women's March in Washington, D.C., focused and filled with energy

It was a whirlwind weekend for some in Chicago as they boarded buses to Washington, D.C. on Friday and arrived home on Sunday.

The group “March to Action” took 100 people from Chicago to the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday. The group funded the trip after raising $25,000 on a GoFundMe page.

They were part of the half a million people who descended on Washington the same day President Donald Trump had his first full day on the job.

The march was in response to fears that rights for women and minorities will be ignored under the new administration.

“I was empowered I was inspired actually to just look out among the people,” said 17-year-old Giselle Corral. She attended the Women’s March on Washington with her 66-year-old grandmother.

Their “March to Action” arrived in D.C. around 11 a.m. Saturday and the Chicagoans proceeded to march for 6 hours, getting back on the bus around 6 Saturday night.
 
Celia Perez, Corral’s grandmother said she thought it was important for her granddaughter to learn about women’s rights and said “We are important and we are humans.”

One of the group’s organizers Karen Citow said this is just the first step.

“We are going to harness the energy of what happened yesterday at this movement and the movement in Chicago to fuel us going forward,” said Citow.

The message was loud and clear to President Donald Trump who responded early Sunday morning on Twitter: “Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly."

Then an hour and a half later the President tweeted again: “Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views."

“We hope he doesn't fail because he's the president there’s nothing we can do about it - if he fails we go with him,” said Corral.

Organizers for both events in D.C. and in Chicago had to "officially" cancel their marches because of the crowds.

Those attending the Chicago rally went ahead and marched - unofficially.

Organizers in D.C. ended up rerouting the march for the hundreds of thousands of people.