Women’s march in downtown Sioux Falls sees 2,500 participants, encourages midterm voting

More than 2,500 people from Sioux Falls and the surrounding area joined in demonstration downtown for the second annual women’s march Saturday morning.

The theme of this year’s march was “Power to the Polls,” as midterm elections approach. Hundreds of sister marches popped up worldwide in support.

Marchers met at EmBe gym early in the morning to make signs, register to vote and sign petitions. Later, the crowd lined up at Carnegie Town Hall and made their way toward the Minnehaha County Courthouse where speakers and mayoral candidate Jolene Loetscher stoked the crowd.

Several march participants were USD students and faculty, including SGA at-large senator Michelle Novak with senior Olivia Mann. They were accompanied by Sara Lampert, coordinator for women, gender & sexuality studies and assistant professor of history, and Bridget Diamond-Welch, assistant professor of political science.

Novak, a first-year doctor of audiology student, said she went to both the Vermillion and Sioux Falls women’s marches last year after Donald Trump’s inauguration. This year, she said one issue she stood for was CHIP.

“Being a future healthcare provider, I want to make sure children have access to appropriate and affordable healthcare,” Novak said.

Two other USD students joined in the march to represent their new student organization, the social work club. Both junior social work majors, Briana Sargent and Maria Letcher made the trip to Sioux Falls to bring light to their social work club.

“It’s a pretty new organization and we do a lot of volunteer work in the community,” Letcher said. “I think if something is important to you, you should let it be known.”

Sargent said this was her first time involved in a demonstration, and she said she was excited to join in the march.

“There’s power in numbers,” Sargent said. “When you all get together and just share your concerns and views, it makes it more powerful,” Sargent said.

One issue in mind when marching was the Time’s Up movement. Sargent said it’s important for women’s voices to be heard at a time like this.

“I think all the issues around the sexual assault and sexual harassment are really important and something that could really make a lot of changes,” she said. “Women are very resilient, I think, and now everyone’s coming out and speaking loud and with purpose.”

Sargent said it’s necessary to get involved in marches and demonstrations like these.

“I think that these marches show that we’re only going to move forward, we’re not going to go back on these issues and become silent again,”
she said.