Severe Snowstorm Sends Students Home

Despite a major storm, the March for Life went on as planned in Washington, D.C.
News 25’s Kendra Turley caught up with local students whose trip to the legendary march was cut short due to the unexpected heavy snow fall.
Every year, thousands and thousands of pro-life advocates travel to Washington D.C. to protest against abortion during the March for Life. Samantha Sharplin said, “Our mother could have aborted us but instead she chose to pray to God and she chose to put us up for adoption and we were adopted by a wonderful woman who put us in this youth ministry.”
Over 200 others from Pascagoula to Waveland loaded the buses Wednesday afternoon in hopes to be a part of the signature march this year. Annabelle Landry said, “I think that abortion is wrong and needs to be stopped. I wanted to go up there to protest about it, well against it,”
Shortly after the group’s arrival to the capitol city, a state of emergency was declared, prompting the chaperones of the trip to make the heartbreaking but safe call to cut the trip short and return back to the Coast. “Yeah, I was kind of sad. I was crying because we drove all that way and we were just going to have to go home without protesting or getting to say what we thought about it,” said Megan Sharplin.
The students still had the opportunity to unite with other pro-life advocates during a rally before loading the bus the next morning and heading back to the Coast. “It was mostly a lot of protestors talking about why it was wrong and why it needed to be stopped and a lot of people just prayed after that,” said Landry.
Record breaking inches of snow caused the group’s bus to get stuck for several hours in Atlanta, Georgia, prolonging the already long drive back to the Coast. The students took advantage of the extra hours by making new friends, playing in the snow and exploring. “Being stuck on the bus was pretty fun because we made a lot of new friends and we got to go to a lot of places to eat and we got to go to a big mall. So, that was really good,” said Samantha Sharplin.
Although they weren’t able to be a part of the march this year, students tell News 25 they have every intention of loading the bus next year and trying again.