March for Life 2007

We started our journey by leaving St. Joe's at 2:00 pm on Sunday, January 21st and heading up to BD's Mongolian BBQ in Ann Arbor for what would be our last actual meal until 3:00 pm Monday, January 22nd after the March for Life.

We boarded our bus at around 6:00 pm and rode though the night to Washington, DC.


On the bus headed to DC.
(Josh is mad that I took this picture in the dark)


James

Jonathan

Joseph keeping occupied with a video game.

Jason at his best, as always.

Me getting some assistance from a couple of the guys.

I decided not to sleep at all on the bus the whole trip to DC and instead decided to see how long I could balance this bottle of water on my head. I think it was something like 15 minutes.
After riding on the bus all through the night, we arrived in Washington, DC at approximately 4:30 am. Our first stop was the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It was huge and beautiful. There were hundreds of people in the Crypt area of the Basilica that had spent the night in anticipation of the March for Life.
After we toured the Basilica from 4:30 am to 6:30 am, we headed across town to the Hyatt Regency Hotel where we would be dropped off and picked back up later that same night at 5:30 PM Once we got dropped off, we had to walk about a half mile to the Verizon Center where the Washington Wizards play for a Youth Rally and a Catholic Mass with 24,700 young people. This alone was a great experience.
The pictures above and below are inside the Verizon Center when we first arrived. The succession of pictures shows the place begin to fill up. There ended up being over 24,000 in attendance.
The above and below pictures are from when the Youth Rally had begun. Music is playing and the youth in the stadium are moving around. Below is a picture off the Jumbo-tron of Steve Angrisano, a popular Catholic recording artist. Pretty Cool!
Here the stadium is really starting to fill up. You can see the three levels that are packed with young Catholics rallying for Life.
These pictures are of when the Mass was beginning. The procession began and must have lasted for 10-15 minutes. Priests just kept coming and coming in a steady flow for to concelebrate the Mass. Following the Priests, you will see a large number of Bishops, more than I had ever seen together in my lifetime. It was a very moving experience.
Look at the stream of Priests coming down the center isle. They were two and three wide.
Here you can see the Bishops following all the Priests in. You can see the large number of Priests in the picture below to the right. If you scroll back up, you will notice that the stands in that one section used to be empty and now they are half full of Catholic Priests.
Also if you notice the whole center section of the arena was mainly filled with other religious, sisters, brothers, deacons, and a huge number of Seminarians. It is important for us to remember to thank God for all our Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, Deacons, Sisters, Brothers, and especially pray for all our Seminarians. May God truly bless them.
   
After the Mass, the 24,000 or so youth left the Verison Center, took up their Right to Life signs and banners and marched the streets down to the National Mall for the Right to Life Rally. There were young people carrying signs for as far as you could see. Streets were closed and if you didn't know better, you could have mistaken this Youth Rally March for the March for Life.
As far as you could see, there were people protesting abortion. Reports say that it was estimated that 75% of the Pro-Life March/Rally Participants were under 21 years old.
Here we are coming into the National Mall from our own Youth March for the Pro-Life Rally on the Mall. It was cold, the ground was wet and muddy, and we hadn't eaten since 3:00 PM the day before and now it is 12:00 noon. What a great experience though, to be able to Stand up and Speak out against Abortion.
These pictures try to show the depth of people here. The camera does not do the crowd justice. The crowd literally when for as far as you could see in every direction. There were Pro-Lifers everywhere.
Trying to stay warm and wondering when the politicians were going to be done talking.
Look at all the HAPPY faces.
After an hour and a half of standing in a soggy, cold field, the Rally has concluded and we begin Marching for Life. You were basically shoulder to shoulder with people marching. The streets were so packed with people marching that you would get bumped in the back and sides all moving with this huge mass of Pro-Lifers.
The picture top right shows the crowd of people marching up Capitol Hill. For as far as you can see there are Pro-Life Marchers, marching to the United States Supreme Court protesting abortion.
Here we are finally. We have reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
   
After Marching for Life, we decided that the snacks in our bookbags were not enough to get us through the day. Thanks to some help from Sharon Taylor, we were able to find a little sandwich shop and finally at 3:00 PM Monday, January 22nd ate an actual meal. It was delicious.
After eating, our group decided to break into two smaller groups, one headed back to the bus and one headed for some sightseeing of the monuments. Now some will say the sightseeing tour was fun and worth it and some will say that it was a grueling, 2 hour, fast-paced march around the monuments. Anyway, we went sightseeing.
To me, the Washington Monument didn't look as far away as it was.
It turned out to be a hike, but I think it was well worth it.
Below is a picture of the Jefferson Monument. We didn't actually go by it, this picture was taken with my camera on as much zoom as I could get. But, hey, at least I have a picture of it, right?
Once again, I didn't realize that the reflecting pond was so huge and that the Lincoln Memorial was so far away from the Washington Monument. The map showed them relatively close together. Darn maps!
This was pretty impressive to see. The Lincoln Memorial. It was bigger than the picture shows.
From left to right: Joseph, Katie, Joe, Mike, Amber, Lauren, Jason, James & Jonathan. Aimee and Nate were also here with us and I was taking the picture.
This was also very impressive. The Vietnam Memorial. It was also a lot larger than I had envisioned.
Here we are hurrying back to catch the bus before it leaves us in Washington, DC. You'll be happy to know that we made it back to the bus with 2 minutes to spare. Very exhausted, but with 2 minutes before departure.
Here is a picture of the White House as we walked by on our way back to the bus.
And here is a picture of the Capitol Building as we were walking back to the bus.
So, in all, this was a very rewarding trip, a great experience and I hope that everyone had a good time as well. We all learned a little something about sacrifice during this trip. Doing what is right is not always the easy thing to do. We all knew that standing up for what we believed in was the right thing to do and we had to sacrifice sleep, food, sore legs, cold feet and much more throughout the day to do the right thing. How rewarding it was to know that we did our part to stand up and speak out against abortion. We don't want abortion to take another 44 million of us before it is outlawed. We want to see an end NOW! We shouldn't have to lose anymore children to this horrible tactic.

I want to thank all of our youth and adults who participated in this experience:
Olivia Halasz, Elly Netter, Paul Netter, Shelly Bensch, Aimee Phipps, Amber Hoag, Laruen Hoag, Nate Parker, Jason Spagnoli, Lori McKay, Katie McKay, Joe Vitale, Josh Roesch, Jonathan Wallace, James Wallace, Mike Beltrame, Joseph Wisiniewski, Robert & Michelle Burke, Sharon Taylor, and Fr. Dave. May God bless each of you!