Sisters youths march for children

More than 80 Sisters residents, mostly youths, carrying sleeping bags, guitars and toiletries walked from Sisters High School to Sisters Elementary School Saturday night. They gathered at the elementary school to create art and write letters and poetry to people in positions of power and to the children of Uganda.

Their effort was in accord with some 55,000 people throughout the world who signed up for the Invisible Children Global Night Commute. The goal of the evening was to raise awareness and to show support for the reported 40,000 children who make similar journeys every day in Northern Uganda. Out of fear, they walk two to five miles from the countryside into the relative safety of a city to escape the wrath of a rebel army that has reportedly abducted over 25,000 children in the last two decades.

The Lords Resistance Army, as it is called, uses these children for sex slaves and soldiers. Often they are forced to kill one another. It is not uncommon for a child to be forced to kill his or her own parents while being abducted.

“It was a bigger turnout than I expected, especially for the earlier commute,” said SHS Junior Travis Ehrenstrom, who helped lead planning and staging for the event.

At 7:30 p.m., approximately 60 people left Sisters High School. They walked down McKinney Butte Road, crossed the Three Wind Shopping Center parking lot into the downtown area. Periodically commuters answered questions for passers-by who had no clue of the event nor the situation in Uganda. Before dark, they arrived at the Sisters Elementary School gym where they laid out a place to stay for the night.

After a short time of running around and blowing off steam as adolescents do, paper, pens and art supplies were made available and the group settled into the mood of the evening. Some played guitar as their friends drew pictures and wrote letters and poetry. Some isolated themselves while others gathered in groups and talked while they wrote.

“Behold, an echoing cry goes unanswered,” wrote SHS sophomore David Kanoa James, in a poem he wrote that night. “We need to learn to listen with our hearts not just our ears,” wrote Chrissy Pulig Gomez.

The writings and artwork will be gathered together in book form and sent to senators and presidents as a plea that they, as leaders, would work to end the crisis.

At midnight, juniors and seniors, who had attended prom, gathered at the high school. Some were in pajamas and some still in tuxedos, draping sleeping bags like capes over their bodies to keep warm. They left at 12:30 a.m., walking past the Patterson Ranch into downtown Sisters. Meteors blazed across the sky as Officer Don Pray followed the group in his patrol car to insure safety. An hour later the group arrived at their destination and settled in for the night.

Around 2 a.m. a barefoot SHS senior walked into the gym.

“I’m just doing what thousands of children do every night in Northern Uganda,” said Jesse Prichard, a senior at Sisters High School. “I never realized how scary it could be. All the things that can go through your mind, and I was walking through the safety of our town.”

Awareness of the situation in Uganda was brought to Sisters in March when a volunteer team from Invisible Children screened the documentary Invisible Children: Rough Cut at Sisters Movie House. Approximately 250 people saw the film that weekend and it has since been screened at Sisters High School and is available to be rented at no charge at Sunbuster Video and Sisters Video.

“This is great,” said SHS Principal Bob Macauley of the event. “It’s good for the students to get out of their comfort zone.”