A March for Our Lives event will be conducted beginning at 11 am, Saturday, June 11, on the lawn of Newtown Middle School, 11 Queen Street.

The event will begin with speakers before attendees will be invited to march to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 11 Mile Hill Road, to protest. The full list of speakers is still to be decided, but will include Newtown High School student and Sandy Hook survivor Ashley Hubner, and local young adult Miriam Aziz, who will read a poem.

The march is connected to a March for Our Lives main event occurring in Washington D.C. There will additionally be hundreds of other similar marches occurring across the country, according to Grace Eurell, who is coordinating the local effort.

Anyone planning to attend this event must sign up at fs3.formsite.com/ZzzBs1/cucb3fbwa7/index.html.

Eurell, 18, is an activist and volunteer for the March for Our Lives organization. She was born and raised in Newtown, and now attends college at The University of Vermont.

“I will be joined by hopefully a plethora of community members, as well as some volunteers including Rachel Daum, Ryssa Swanson, Izzy Snayd, Molly McCleary, and Ashley Hubner,” she told The Newtown Bee.

The mission of the youth-led movement March for Our Lives, Eurell noted, is to eliminate the gun violence epidemic in the United States. As quoted on the March for Our Lives website, “We aim to create safe and healthy communities and livelihoods where gun violence is obsolete.”

The organization was formed following the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on February 14, 2018, when 17 people were murdered and numerous others were injured. March For Our Lives members and supporters have been working tirelessly to end the gun violence epidemic.

“After this horrible tragedy, millions of people mobilized across the country on March 24 to protest politicians and demand change,” said Eurell. “I am proud to say that I was one of the students who marched on our nation’s capital of Washington D.C. that day, over four years ago.

“In our community, which knows the horrors of gun violence all too well, we will take to the streets of our town to mobilize against gun violence once again,” she continued. “This time we will get what we are demanding from the government: a nation in which we do not have to be afraid to be shot when simply going about our lives. No one should be afraid to go to school, to the grocery store, to go to their place of worship, or anywhere else. We demand that our government takes the proper steps to end this preventable epidemic, and that is what we aim to do this June 11.”

Eurell said she is working with Newtown Action Alliance and Sandy Hook Promise for this event. There will be resources available on Saturday to donate to Sandy Hook Promise, March for Our Lives, and to register to vote online in Connecticut. Signs will be posted in both English and Spanish, so the event is as accessible as possible to all members of the community, she said.