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In just one week, four women of Asbury Park organized a local Women’s March that drew a crowd of 6,000 Saturday, according to the Asbury Park Police Department’s count.

The women: Daniele Fiori, Amanda Kane, Dallas Hlatky and Jennifer Lampert [shown below right], envisioned the sister walk to the March on Washington in DC as a march to support all human rights.

“Women’s rights and respect for women are of course at the forefront of this event however the march is to express concern for all of humanity,” the women wrote on a GoFundMe site created three days before the march to pay for event costs. “The march is about what we stand for. The march is about standing together. The march is about being heard.”

Heard they were – with a resounding response. The crowd sourcing campaign raised over $11,000 in just three days, far exceeding their $5,000 goal. 

“What an incredible awe-inspiring turnout; honestly we are floored we can’t believe this,” said  Fiori [founder of Sweet Dani B].

Setting off from Lake Avenue and Emory Street, the chants of expression were as varied as the signs created by the families and individuals, many of who walked down Lake Avenue to the boardwalk with their pets before gathering in Bradley Park at Fifth and Ocean avenues.

And while the city is no stranger to drawing large crowds like those seen during President Barack Obama’s May 2013 visit following Superstorm Sandy, Bamboozle events, or a Bruce Springsteen event or sighting, this was a collaboration that inspired a call to action from many city residents and business owners who joined the women in the impromptu organization efforts.

Behind the scenes the Mayor and Council, DPW, Police Department and Asbury Audio helped organize the semantics, and we spotted House of Independents’ Morgan Sackman, Watermark’s Russell Lewis, Smith group’s James Watt, Madison Marquette’s Adam Nelson, Joe Grillo, and Penny Gnesin lending a hand.

Keynote Speaker Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault [CASA] said her participation in the Women’s March Asbury Park was personal.

“Like so many of you, the events of our times impact me deeply,” she said. “There will be a public narrative that makes this political, and for some, it may be. But today, here in Asbury Park, we are here because we care about people.”

Teffenhart went on to say that speaking publicly about women’s bodies, equality, reproductive choices, and the sexual violence some incur is not revolutionary.

“What is revolutionary is the ways in which our voices are being heard,” she said “The ways in which we, as activists, are organizing and using technology to create communities, share ideas, cultivate the next generation of feminists, and create a world that harnesses the power of women, rather than suppresses it.

“What is revolutionary is that while some members of the media, an abundance of elected officials, and some prominent policy makers still struggle to facilitate meaningful discussions about sexual violence and the ways in which “locker room talk” perpetuates rape culture. We, through our organizing, our blogging, our posting and sharing, and marching; we have the opportunity to counter ignorance in real time with facts, statistic, and personal testimonies.”

Mayor John Moor, a proponent for equal pay and rights for women, said some of the city’s highest ranking officials are women.

“I can’t believe that this is 2017 and we are still arguing that women should get equal pay and promotion,” Moor said. “All jobs should be based on merit not gender.”

Moor said the city’s planner, clerk, communication’s director, and chief financial officer, all women, were hired on their merit at equal pay.

“I think we are ahead of the curve on this,” he said. “We have three council women and hire the best qualified candidates, which in these positions, happen to be women.”

In addressing the Planned Parenthood defunding threats by the new administration,  Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr, [NJ-06] asked to crowd to respond to ‘a call to action.’

“There are people in our area who are not going to have healthcare,” Pallone said. You need to make people understand that this is a real threat. This is going to impact people’s daily lives…people are going to be impacted in a way that is not fair, that is not equal. I just have one plea and that is to continue what you are doing here today, next week, next month because we ultimately we will succeed.”

Below are excerpts from the speakers of March on Asbury Park:

Councilwoman Yvonne Clayton: A woman is like a tea bag, you don’t know her strength until you put her in hot water.

Councilwoman Eileen Chapman: Our community advocates for the protection of human rights. Marching with us are women and men of many background, races, gender identities, and socio economic classes. But today we stand together as one collective voice to affirm our right to equality and social justice.

Former BOE member and president Nicolle Harris: You will have to love the hell out some people in the next four years. They won’t know they cared about women’s rights until they meet you.

Rev. Gil Caldwell, civil rights activist: I have not felt this since I was at the march from Selma to Montgomery, the March on Washington, or introducing Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr on the Boston Commons. I suggested that now there are 4 words that begin with S that should shape the Justice struggles of the 21st century; Seneca Falls, NY, the place of the first women’s rights gathering, Selma, the launching place for voting rights, Stonewall, the New York bar that was the location that energized the gay rights movement, and Saturday, January 21, 2017, the Women’s March when women and men made “We the People” a reality, rather than rhetoric.

Trina Scordo, NJ Communities United: Change only happens when we encounter those uncomfortable spaces. We are here today to as a permanent call to action. We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.

Assemblywoman Joann Downey [D-Monmouth]: I am marching for my two daughters [7 and 5½]. I have all of you, who are of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientation; we all believe that we all deserve the right to have a wonderful life and that we are all equal. We must now double down in order to create a better, more just society.

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The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

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