Paly students among the estimated 5,000 people who attended the April 30 San Francisco rally for Darfur came away saying that the rallies were a positive effort towards ending genocide.
Attendees held hands in a line across the Golden Gate Bridge in a silent vigil at 10:45 a.m. for five minutes, and then proceeded to Crissy Field for a rally, live music, and speeches by Bay Area leaders such as Oakland representative Barbara Lee.
Wearing green t-shirts saying, "End the Darfur Genocide" on the front and "End the Genocide in Darfur April 30th 2006 San Francisco" on the back, attendees ranged in age from as young as babies to as old as hippies from the 60’s. Most of the rally goers belonged to high schools, colleges, or religious groups. Many of the students who attended the rally were from UC’s and other colleges such as Stanford, UCLA, and UCI.
A similar rally was also held in Washington D.C. where over 30,000 people attended. D.C. according to event organizers, rally had speakers such as George Clooney, who recently went to the Sudan/Chad border with his father to make a documentary.
“It was a good start,” said Paly history teacher Maureen McCorry who attended the silent vigil in San Francisco. “I expected more people, [but] I was pleased to see any high school students there because of prom.”