St. Thomas is taking a Million Steps for Peace in March as participants come together for an 18-mile walk around the island.
Organizer James Carroll III said the marchers will go through all neighborhoods and near most of the schools and housing communities. The march is sponsored by the Personnel, Human Services and Police Departments, the Jason Carroll Memorial Fund, Project Safe Neighborhoods, My Brothers Workshop, and the University of the Virgin Islands.
Everyone is invited to the March 16 event – walkers, runners, joggers, even cyclists or parents with strollers.
Carroll lost his18-year old son Jason to gun violence in 2000 on a downtown street.
He said the Million Steps for Peace march addresses a serious problem in the Virgin Islands that is shared by the rest of the country.
"The problem," he said, "is not the fact that we lost 59 members of the community to violence last year. And the problem is not that our rate of homicides is 10 times what it is in the continental United States. Nor is our biggest problem that our homicide rate is higher than anywhere under the American flag.”
"The biggest problem that we have in the Virgin Islands," Carroll said, "is that this spiraling death rate is not being addressed and we continue to treat the carnage as if it is business as usual.”
“The Million Steps for Peace addresses this problem and encourages residents to talk about the violence and find solutions to stop it," Carroll said.
As the marchers go through the island, he said they will bring the message of peace through song and prayer in the hope of encouraging grassroots discussions about the effects of violence in the territory.
The march will begin at the Fort Christian parking lot on the waterfront. The participants will go east through Havensight out to Red Hook and will then travel west through Smith Bay and up Cassi Hill, finishing at UVI.
Lest you gasp at the 18-mile goal, not to worry. Carroll explained that relay teams will be organized where they can hand off the baton at three-mile intervals, and get a bottle of water while new members join the event.
There will be six stations along the way at three-mile intervals: Antilles School, Nadir, Lindquist Beach, Ft. Mylner, Roosevelt Park and, finally, UVI.
Churches, schools, organizations, businesses and families are encouraged to join in and form six-member relay teams to cover the 18-mile course.
Government workers who participated in the Department of Personnel’s 10,000 Steps Program earlier this month may have an edge. They were up at the crack of dawn and walked a three-mile course in the interest of fitness.
Because of the length of the event, Carroll said organizers are asking everyone to arrive at Fort Christian at 4:30 a.m. to start walking at 5.
For more information, please contact Celia Carroll with Jason Carroll Memorial Fund and V.I. Mothers Against Guns at (340) 775-9337 or go to the website at www.vimothersagainstguns.org.
