Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange organize local buses to D.C.

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Community members from Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange will join hundreds of thousands of other Americans in Washington, D.C., in a march for climate, jobs and justice. The People’s Climate March, scheduled for April 29, is a project of dozens of organizations working together to solve the climate crisis.

SOMA Action and the Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn green teams have joined forces to organize local buses to Washington, D.C. South Orange resident Hildy Karp has stepped up to assist with bus logistics for the April 29 march. To reserve your seat on a bus to the People’s Climate March, visit the Facebook page: @SOMAClimateMarchDC.

Regan White, a member of the SOMA Action Environmental Committee said, “Buses will leave from the Maplewood-Millburn-South Orange area. The faster we fill these buses, the more buses we’ll be able to schedule. So, buy your ticket now!”

Organizers are planning to purchase carbon offsets to mitigate the impact of bus emissions from the trip and local high school students are coordinating to launch a poster-making party.

Jerome Wagner, a leader at 350NJ, a global climate-solutions organizer, spoke at a meeting of SOMA Action in February. He challenged the group to get involved as a local organizer for the People’s Climate March.

Wagner said: “2017 needs to be a year of strong action favoring the climate. I am impressed by grassroots organizers in Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange. The only way this mobilization will work is if it’s driven from the bottom up by people like you. That’s why we want everyone to get on a bus and join the People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C.”

The last People’s Climate March, in September 2014, had a turnout of more than 400,000 people in New York City and was hailed as the largest climate march in history. That march preceded the United Nations climate summit, held just days later at the U.N. Headquarters in New York.

“We are marching because climate change affects all of us and by marching we show how united we are on this issue,” Maplewood Green Team Chairperson Tracey Woods said.

  Green Team