Student Groups Unify to Host Single “March For Our Lives” Event in St. Petersburg, FL
St. Petersburg, FL — Two Tampa Bay-area student groups have joined forces in hosting a Pinellas County March For Our Lives event on March 24th at Poynter Park in downtown St. Petersburg, FL.
A coalition of students, teachers and parents led by student-activist Jared Hampton had originally organized a march to begin at the Pinellas County Courthouse. But on Tuesday Hampton announced via the group’s Facebook Event page that the event’s location and time had been changed and that his group would be joining forces with Pinellas4Parkland to host a single event at Poynter Park. Madison Vogel, a spokeswoman for Pinellas4Parkland, later confirmed the two event’s unification in a Facebook post.
A sole March For Our Lives event will now be held at Poynter Park located at 1000 3rd St. S. in St. Petersburg, FL (adjacent to University of South Florida-St. Petersburg) on Saturday March 24th from 11 AM to 3 PM.
Following a series of speeches, a march will commence on a route closed to traffic by the St. Petersburg Police Department. Portable restrooms and food vendors will be available on site.
According to their website, Pinellas4Parkland is a group comprised of students from sixteen Pinellas County high schools. There mission statement is: “ We the students in order to create a safer society are advocating for ‘common sense gun control’ and awareness for the movement to prevent gun abuse; while highlighting the importance of mental health resources, and racial acceptance.”
The group has a Facebook page and a Twitter account where regular updates are shared on the March 24th Pinellas County event.
Both the Hampton-led coalition and Pinellas4Parkland are keeping their Facebook Event pages active and have updated their respective “About” sections to further clarify the unification and the event’s details.
Activists who wish to volunteer with tasks such as setup and clean-up can sign up here. Marchers and their supporters can also purchase official March For Our Lives t-shirts and other merchandise from the official March For Our Lives store.
Tampa Bay Social Action will publish a follow-up next week which will contain additional details on the event’s scheduled guest speakers, march route and parking options.
