Respect Life Rebounds After Blizzard Thwarts March for Life Trip

When the leaders of the Rockhurst Respect Life student group thought about participating again in this year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C., they knew they wanted to open up the trip to more Rockhurst students.

While in the past they had always traveled in the bus chartered by Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, Respect Life's staff adviser Mary Cary said the group this year were committed to chartering their own and recruiting students to fill it. After raising their own funds, Rockhurst Respect Life was set to send a contingent of close to 50 students to Washington, D.C., for the march Friday.

Then the forecast came out.

By the beginning of this week, meteorologists were warning about the impact of Winter Storm Jonas, which was expected to dump as much as 2 feet of snow on parts of the Northeast, including Washington, D.C. The March for Life itself was not canceled, but Rockhurst Respect Life, like many other groups across the country, were forced to make a difficult choice on Wednesday.

“You could have heard a pin drop in the room,” Cary said, after she made the announcement to the students gathered in Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Hall that the trip to the March for Life was canceled as a result of the weather.

Julia Faltin, president of Rockhurst Respect Life, said the students, including her, who had worked so hard to set up the bus trip were disappointed.

However, Cary said it didn’t take long for the organizing team to spring into action. She said the Rev. Chris Schroeder, S.J., the new student minister who was scheduled to be a chaperone on the trip, led a discussion with students about the cancellation, while student leaders got to work on alternative plans.

“I have to give most of the credit to Julia Mangan (the group’s March for Life coordinator),” Faltin said. “She did an incredible job of bouncing back quickly after the news was delivered that we would not be going to D.C.”

By that evening, the students had regrouped to instead organize participation in local events held in conjunction with the march in Washington.

“It was disappointing to have the trip canceled,” said Mangan, a sophomore. “I don’t think anyone wanted to cancel it, but we knew it was the right decision because of the weather.”

On Friday morning, many of the students attended a Mass at Kansas City’s Catholic Center before participating in a community procession to the steps of the federal courthouse in downtown Kansas City for an hourlong prayer vigil. A number of Rockhurst students were scheduled to talk during the vigil, including both Faltin and Mangan.

“In the end, location does not matter,” Faltin said. “Whether we are in D.C. or K.C., the Rockhurst community will still remember and pray for the lives of the unborn on this day. Even though the Rockhurst marchers are not there in person today to march in remembrance of all the lives lost, we are still there in spirit and we will still stand up for the right to life.”

Cary said she considered the cancellation a learning experience for the students. And Mangan said she is already looking forward to planning the trip to the march next year.