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Report for America is a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities.

Women's Empowerment -- Marches Take Place Across the Country

Women's marches took place across the country Saturday. Some northern Illinois participants stretched for miles down a heavy trafficked street -- standing against President Donald Trump and his agenda.

More than 45 women and a few men showed up at the intersection of Williamsburg Avenue and Bricher Road in Geneva.

Credit Yvonne Boose
Cathy Dugan of Bloomingdale, Illinois.

Some held signs in honor of the late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, while others showed support for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.          

Pamela Schumacher is from Glen Ellyn. She said the women at the march have lots of concerns.

“We want people to vote. We don't think the country is going in the right direction,” she explained. “We're worried about the push for the Supreme Court nominee. There's no COVID relief. You know, the leadership isn't listening to us.”

Gary van Breda was there in solidarity. He shared that he’s been to plenty of marches in support of women, but said this one felt differently.  

“We've seen this surge in women who have said, you know, ‘This is unacceptable. We're not just going to talk about it, but we're going to do something about it as well,’” he said.

A planned march in Elgin was moved due to a Trump rally. 

“I mean, I do think that it's not a coincidence that they're having their own rally today, the same day as the Women's March,” said Sarah Kant of Elgin. “But since I'm here with my four-year-old daughter, I just didn't want to… it wasn't worth it to, you know, to go to that location.”

Kant recently moved from Chicago. She said she’s glad to see women standing up for themselves everywhere.

The Together We Rise marches extended more than 30 miles up and down Randall Road -- from Algonquin to Aurora.

  • Yvonne Boose is a 2020 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
Yvonne covers artistic, cultural, and spiritual expressions in the COVID-19 era. This could include how members of community cultural groups are finding creative and innovative ways to enrich their personal lives through these expressions individually and within the context of their larger communities. Boose is a recent graduate of the Illinois Media School and returns to journalism after a career in the corporate world.