LIFESPAN takes nearly 400 from Archdiocese of Detroit to D.C. rally
This year, approximately 650,000 pro-lifers gathered in D.C., and LIFESPAN took around 390 people, representing youth and high school pro-life groups in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as part of the estimated record 500,000 who took part from across the country.
“The increase from six buses last year to eight buses this year has been challenging, but I am so glad that LIFESPAN and I could do it,” said Lynn Gura, LIFESPAN’s youth program coordinator. “The more young people we can get to D.C. for this event the better.”
Right to Life — LIFESPAN began in 2000 as an organization working to overturn Roe v. Wade and has since expanded its resources to offer young people ways to defend the right to life. From youth mailings to baby showers benefiting crisis pregnancy centers, LIFESPAN provides opportunities for all ages to volunteer and continue the mission of protecting human life.
“In spite of the different things that came at us this year, I was hearing from all the kids that this trip was the most awesome so far,” Gura said. “They don’t seem to mind whatever hardships come our way.”
Gura has coordinated LIFESPAN’s trips to the March for Life for seven years and said there’s always room for improvement.
“Makes you almost want to cry when you see the kids become the leaders and take charge, dealing with whatever came their way,” she said.
Lauren Bennett, a teacher at Mercy High School in Farmington Hills, and Elliott Argue, a teacher at Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills, now lead as chaperones in the LIFESPAN movement after having once attended as students.
|
“The first time I went on the trip, I was a sophomore in [Mercy] high school, and it was truly an amazing experience,” Bennett said. “I never fully understood the universality of my beliefs, especially in high school, because it’s easy to think you’re alone.”
This was Bennett’s 10th year participating in the march. Being a chaperone gives her the opportunity to show the students that the pro-life movement is full of youth and life — not to mention national — she said.
Teaching theology part time and working with the campus ministry, Argue is also the Life Club moderator at Marian.
“As a high school student [at Marian], the march was hugely life changing for me,” she said. The revelation of the number of youth at the annual youth Mass considering religious life was eye-opening, she said. Since then, she has participated in eight marches.
From Marian High School, 50 students attended the trip, and each left with a deeper bond in Christ, she said.
“We went into it pushing that this is a pilgrimage and that not all pilgrimages are that comfortable, and the girls took it in stride with open hearts,” Argue said. “There’s the flame that’s ignited that will either be squashed or kept to life. And with so many girls having the spark, there are more girls to bring that back to school.”
As a young teacher traveling with students, there is a boundary between student and teacher, explained Argue. However, praying and attending Mass together strengthened that bond, as well as the bond between the girls.
“People coming are young and have great faith, and that’s what’s going to change the culture. It’s not going to be the protests that change hearts, it’s going to be prayer,” Bennett said.
Cari Ann DeLamielleure is a freelance writer who writes from Washington, D.C.
