Pair of rallies bring hundreds to Memorial Park

Jan. 19--WENATCHEE -- Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the steps of a courthouse may have been the perfect place to deliver a speech on Saturday about his office's ongoing legal action against President Donald Trump's administration.

"It's appropriate that we're here at a courthouse because in our system of government, in a court house, it's a level playing field," he said in the speech. "... One of the great things about litigation is it's like sports, there's an outcome. You either win or you lose."

Ferguson was the first speaker and centerpiece of Wenatchee's Women's March, one of two rallies that brought hundreds to Memorial Park on Saturday. The Right to Life Rally began an hour later on the south side of the Chelan County Courthouse.

The two groups were there to support views that were sometimes opposing but the timing was a coincidence, organizers said.

The Women's March takes place on the same day in cities across the country. For decades a Right to Life Rally has been held in Wenatchee near the anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

"We've been doing this in some form in the same place on the same Saturday for 35 years," Right to Life Rally organizer Gene Helsel said. "This was the Saturday that was closest to the inauguration. So their Saturday and our Saturday were coincidental."

Police received no reports of any issues, Wenatchee Police Capt. Edgar Reinfeld said.

Ferguson happened to be in the area for another speaking event in Leavenworth. The choice to attend the Women's March was an easy one to make, he said in an interview after his speech.

"I wouldn't miss it. It worked out well and as a statewide official it's important to get to every part of the state," he said. "It worked out well to combine some work I had in Leavenworth, family time and getting to the rally."

He was joined on east steps of the courthouse by nine other speakers, mostly local activists and attorneys. They discussed everything from immigration reform to homelessness to women's reproductive rights.

Clare Nelle, a 17-year-old junior at Cascade High School, tackled the topic of climate change.

"Generation Z, that's my generation, have inherited an environmental disaster," she said in the speech. "Having said that, I firmly believe we are not too late. Life is amazing in the sense that it will adapt and persist, even in the most trying times."

Nelle's parents are involved in the environmental research field, so climate issues have been one of her passions for long as she can remember, she said.

"I'm just really excited. I was so happy to see that so many people were out there," she said after the event. "It just makes me so happy to see everyone."

The Women's March estimates that just under 600 people attended, organizer Terry Sloan said. Speeches began on the east side of the courthouse, then the group marched through downtown Wenatchee.

Janel Ulrich brought her 12-year-old daughter Kyla to the march. She said the showing was a great sign for Wenatchee.

"It's impressive and it's a big message of consolidarity and love for the future," she said.

Helsel, the organizer of the Right to Life Rally, estimated that 300 to 400 people attended the speeches and march around Memorial Park.

"It went very well. That's our largest turnout ever, I believe," he said. "Speakers knocked it out of the park, the weather was good. What's not to like?"

Reach Reilly Kneedler at 509-661-5213 or (javascript required to see email). Follow Reilly on Twitter at @reillykneedler.

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