Courtesy Teresa Shook(NEW YORK) — When Teresa Shook, a grandmother from Hawaii, posted “I think we should march” on Facebook on election night, she never expected the response she would get.
The next morning, more than 10,000 people said they were attending the event, after her post went viral.
As thousands of women from around the country head to the nation’s capital to march in protest of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, Good Morning America spoke to some of the organizers who spearheaded the Women’s March on Washington.
“What sparked the need for this movement was the rhetoric of the campaign was so demeaning to women,” Shook told GMA. “I just felt women needed to stand up and say, ‘Here we are, hear our voice, we’re strong we’re empowered and we’re not going away.'”
The Women’s March is a rally scheduled for this Saturday with the mission of sending a “bold message to our new government on their first day in office,” according to a website created by the organizers.
Many people credit movement’s beginning to Shook, 60, from Maui, and her social media call-to-action.
“I decided to post something after election night because I was thinking about my granddaughters, and I didn’t want them to grow up and a world full of hate speech and bigotry,” Shook said in an interview with GMA that aired Tuesday.
“I wrote in my post ‘I think we should march,'” Shook said. “When I woke up in the morning I had over 10,000 people coming to the event. I was flabbergasted.”
The official event page for the Women’s March on Washington now has more than 200,000 people saying they will attend the event in the nation’s capital. In addition, over 270 “sister marches” are scheduled to happen simultaneously, in all 50 states and in 33 countries.
“Someone called me the fire starter for starting this movement,” Shook said. “But this movement would not have happened without thousands of people helping to fan the flames.”
Four women especially have been working tirelessly since Election Day to organize and coordinate the event by co-chairing the Women’s March organization.
Linda Sarsour, one of the co-chairs of the organization, told GMA that “one of our goals for this march is to display what it looks like when the progressive movements are working together.” Sarsour said they have people at the march who are championing climate justice, racial justice, immigration rights, and women’s reproductive rights “coming and showing one unified voice.”
Carmen Perez, another co-chair of the organization, added that they “also want people to know that women are leaders.”
“We also want the world to know that women are leaders,” Perez said. “We want to show our children, and specifically our daughters, they can be the next generation of leaders as well.”
Shook said she hopes people will “remember the March on Washington.”
“One person can make a difference,” Shook said.
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