Fridays For Future Climate Strike Takes Over Boulder Bandshell

BOULDER, CO -- On Friday, March 15, the youth of Boulder joined more than 2000 other locations around the globe to strike from school and call for global action on climate change. It was the largest day of action yet for the Fridays for Future movement started by Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. Thunberg began as a lone protestor with a homemade sign outside of the Swedish parliament last summer, but her call to action has been picked up by students across the globe.

"Climate change is real," said 10-year-old Addy Stanzel as she carried a banner with her Jarrow Montessori classmate Jasmine Wine. "We're going to be the ones to deal with it."

"We have to do something," added Wine. When asked what their teachers though about them missing school, Stanzel and Wine agreed: "They're really proud."

Many of the students who protested did so with their teachers' blessings. 17-year-old Kenar Houghton, a student at Legend High School, had traveled from Parker after the Denver march was cancelled in the aftermath of the mid-week bomb cyclone. She said her interest in climate change advocacy had been sparked by her AP environmental science class, and that her teacher told her she should go to the march.

"I'd like to have a future," said Houghton. "Knowledge is important. That pushes us toward change."

A well-organized crowd full of students from elementary school to college, along with other advocates, parents, and kids so young they were carried, wound its way on a lap from the Boulder Bandshell at Broadway and Canyon on a lap around the Pearl Street Mall. Boulder Earth Guardians and the CU Climate Reality Campus Corps spearheaded the protest.

Chants of "Don't mess with mother!" "Keep our oil in the soil!" and "Hey, hey, ho, ho, climate change has got to go!" were met with honks from motorists and cheers from passersby.

"Climate change is changing our earth in a bad way," said 9-year-old Niko Striphis. He marched with 8-year-old Luna Fierer, and the pair said they were the representatives for Bear Creek Elementary.

Upon the return to the bandshell, 10-year-old, redheaded Mallory Dolores stood on the bandshell stage in multi-colored leggings, surrounded by her classmates from the Boulder School for Integrated Studies.

"I'm here to take action," she told the crowd. "I don't want to just see it from the children, I want to it see it from leaders."

Dolores explained how scared she was by visions of the world burning or being covered by plastic as a younger kid. "I'm not as scared anymore," she shouted to a cheering audience. "I know that we can change."

Do you like this article? Join the Boulder Patch on Facebook! Stay in touch with the news and events that shape Boulder County. Sign up for your free Patch newsletter here.