‘This is a Little One': Seniors Walk in Solidarity With Women's March

The approximately 50 seniors marched around their retirement home the same day thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across the country in support of women's rights

At 88 she may look unassuming, but Alice Morawetz wanted to be part of something bigger than herself.

“I have strong feelings about the change in our democracy,” the Seacrest Village Retirement Center resident says. “We wanted to be unified with other women.”

Morawetz began organizing a march at the North County San Diego senior center last week, in support of the hundreds of women’s marches that took place across the country and internationally Saturday.

She said although the administration initially thought the march might be divisive, she wanted to avoid any political confrontation. “It is not in the style of an expression of protest,” she says, calling their walk positive, supportive and unifying.

“Because we are seniors we have to be smart about this. We can’t go running around. It’s not possible,” Morawetz explains.

It wasn’t the largest march in San Diego; two other marches in downtown and the North County drew tens of thousands of demonstrators, but the approximately 50 seniors were not going to be silenced.

Resident Trudi Kranitz says two of her daughters marched in Washington, D.C. Saturday.

“I'm doing this for my children, my grandchildren, my daughters,” Kranitz tells NBC 7. “We're trying to make a difference in the world.”

She says the residents at Seacrest Village stick together because they’re like family.

“Whether it’s this particular thing that we did today of for anything, we are always together … We’ve been walking with our walkers right here,” she says. “We’ve been walking around and around trying to make a difference in the world.”

The march was brief: just two laps inside the center. But it was a meaningful statement they hope will reach far beyond the Seacrest Village.

“It’s really inspirational to see women in their 80s and 90s organizing to make a difference,” Carly Stockdale, who flew to San Diego to march with her mother and grandmother instead of attending the New York demonstration, says. "This might have been much more meaningful in many ways." 

Dee Rudolf, who also marched Saturday, says that although they’re “old ladies” they want to be a part of the world too.

“We can't do much, but this is what we can do and our thoughts and prayers are with everyone that can march in big parades. This is a little one.”

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