A peaceful march and rally was held in downtown Boone Saturday alongside thousands of others across states in the nationwide “Hands Off!” rally.
The march and rally consisted of over 1,400 participants, according to the official count in a press release from Watauga Indivisible, which is a local branch of a non-profit, grassroots organization — the Indivisible Project.
The march started at 1:30 p.m. at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. Marchers lined the sidewalk for three quarters of a mile on King Street. The march was intended to conclude at the rally location at 2:00 p.m., but the immense turnout caused delays as it took 40 extra minutes for the entirety of the marchers to arrive. Once the marchers reached their destination, Todd Carter, a Boone Town Council member and Chief Development Director of the Hospitality House, kicked off the rally as emcee.
“I’m here as a passionate, pissed off American to get democracy saved,” Carter said in his opening line.
The rally started at 2:40 p.m. and the location for it was the Watauga County Courthouse. There, seven speakers took to the stage to share their stories and messages of resilience and justice.
The goal of the march was to get the word of their group’s dissatisfaction toward the Trump administration out to the community.
“We’re hoping people wake up and see what’s happening,” said Diane Nilan, a member of Watauga Indivisible’s leadership team and spokesperson.
The national Indivisible Project started in early 2017 as a response to the election of President Donald Trump. Since then, they have established over 3,000 branches across the United States, including the Watauga branch, which joined the national group in February of 2025.
According to The Indivisible Project’s website, their main goal for the rally is to uphold “a real democracy — of, by, and for the people.”
The nationwide organization Hands Off! orchestrated the march alongside the Indivisible Project, as well as others across the U.S. According to the Hands Off! 2025 website, their message is to entice the public to speak out for their rights.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them,” reads their website. “They’re taking everything they can get their hands on, and daring the world to stop them. On Saturday, April 5th, we’re taking to the streets nationwide to fight back with a clear message: Hands off!”
A mix of locals, college students, people from out of state and other social justice organizations attended Saturday’s march.
Nancy Kiplinger, a retired instructional designer at Jhpiego, drove from Greensboro to get her message out to the community.
“I’m furious,” Kiplinger said. “That’s why I’m here.”
She, along with hundreds of others, gathered to rally against the recent legislation, especially the dismantling of social security and other key departments. Kiplinger said her goal was to spread the word about the injustices transpiring within the Trump administration.
Sophia Comacho, a rising graduate student with a concentration in clinical and mental health counseling, came to Boone Saturday with the goal of touring App State’s campus.
However, once she heard of the event, she abandoned her original Saturday plan and moved alongside the marchers. With a makeshift sign in hand, she marched with the intention of having her voice be heard among thousands.
“I just want a change to be made,” Comacho said. “I know that everybody across the country — even back where I’m from — people are doing their part to chip in, and hopefully, our voices will be heard by, if not our country’s government, our state government.”
Along with Watauga Indivisible, the Boone branch of the Revolutionary Communists of America was present.
“Our goal is to recruit revolutionary leadership to our party and to organize a team of revolutionary fighters that can communicate the ideas of communism and socialism effectively,” said Ari Romaldini, a senior sustainable technology major.
With a table consisting of their manifesto and various pamphlets, the RCA called the marchers to action by engaging with them. The group expressed their dissatisfaction with Trump’s legislation and offered the non-partisan solution of turning away from capitalism and toward communism.
“We stand with the workers,” Romaldini said. “We do not stand for any capitalist parties, and we recognize the necessity of a working-class movement.”
Many members of App State’s student body were present at the march, including Nicole Tran the director of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and incoming president of SGA..
“I believe that we should all come as a community and encourage one another to speak out,” Tran said.
Tran was there to reach out to others and advocate for herself and her rights.
“The goal is to see what people are passionate about and also to advocate for myself and for my rights and what I believe in,” Tran said.
After Carter’s introduction, the rally started with High Country poet laureate, Hilda Downer.
“There’s something wrong when there’s a presidential inauguration, and a poet is not invited to read and represent the people,” Downer said in her opening remark.
Her speech consisted of a poem she composed about Trump’s inaugural speech, where he said the U.S. was going to “drill, baby, drill.”
Downer used this phrase numerous times during her speech and shifted Trump’s words into her own call to action.
“This is not a drill,” Downer said. “Hands off our democracy; we will not be drilled.”
Following her and every other speaker’s speech, Carter invited the crowd to a call and response: “Hands off — our democracy.”
The other speakers included a local pastor for the High Country Church of Christ, a representative of the Immigrant Justice Committee, a representative of the High Country Peace and Justice Committee, a representative for Indivisible Watauga and two first-generation App State students.
Bri Armijo, a junior political science major, and Jesus Sisniega-Serrano, a sophomore computer science major, stood on the Hands Off! stage to share their story and the stories of many other first-generation students. They encouraged the audience to acknowledge the immigrant population with kindness and respect while speaking against the higher powers in government.
“Identity politics do not define us, wealth does,” Sisniega-Serrano said.
As a couple of the last speakers of the event, Armijo and Sisniega-Serrano made a call to action to the crowd and the governmental body. They asked for compassion toward one another and accountability from the people in power.
“Your neighbor is not your enemy,” Sisniega-Serrano said. “We are stronger together than divided.”
