There are over 30 protests planned in Vermont 6/14 for “No Kings Day” including one in Burlington with four distinct starting points. Organizers as the Burlington Waterfront Park rally are expecting up to 20,000 Vermonters to attend, which is even more than the “Hands Off!” protest on June 14 which saw an estimated 10,000 rally against Trump policies across the state. That protest attracted many Burlington residents, including Burlington High School students Yasmine Farley ‘25 and Keats Overman-Smith ‘26.
“It felt very empowering to see so much of the community standing up against the Trump administration,” Farley ‘25 said. “Partly because I feel very helpless, sometimes because I feel like I’m just this one small person. But then, when I went to this protest, so many other people showed up.”
Overman-Smith ‘26 agreed.
“Before that [the protest], I was feeling quite dark in despair, and it was so nice to see that my family’s not alone and that there are thousands elsewhere in Vermont and around the nation who see it [the Trump administration and state of our country] and agree that it’s not okay. It felt validating and hopeful.”
Both Farley and Overman-Smith said that the Hands Off! protests demonstrated the power of coming together and creating hope for change in a community.
History teacher Michelle Sagalchik teaches a unit called “Resistance and Change” in ninth-grade classes and said that protesting is a “skill of engaging” that needs to be trained.
“It’s a muscle that needs to be trained,” Sagalchik said. “People learn a lot about civic engagement by even attending a march or a rally or protest [because they] see how it is that people can be guided towards action.”
Sagalchik shared that while protesting isn’t a direct teaching in the classes, it is definitely acknowledged.
The hands-off protest was one of many in Vermont. There were major gatherings in Montpelier, Brattleboro, Chester, Bellows Falls and Barton. And this is coming off the heels of a May Day Rally in Willison supporting immigrants and farm workers rights that brought in around 2,500 people, and Feb 5 “Movement Protest” that gathered hundreds outside of the Vermont Statehouse.
Farley said that protesting doesn’t just show support for the topic you’re fighting for, it shows advocacy for the people who can’t fight as well.
“I think they can’t necessarily show up to these protests, for fear of ICE showing up,” Farley said. “My mom was not born in the United States, so she actually brought her passport and some documents to prove that she is a legal American when we went to the protest, which really struck me. I was like, wow, that’s kind of scary.”
Overman-Smith said the protest brought the community together at a time when there is a lot of division.
“It was cool to kind of see the whole city really united around in solidarity against all the actions that the administration has been doing that’s both impacting our community and people we know elsewhere,” Overman-Smith said.
The “No Kings” protest in Burlington June 14:
- South End March starts at 11am at Calahan Park (45 Locust Street)
- North End March starts at 11am at Riverside Ave./One Mile Road Trailhead
- VCPL/City Hall Feeder March starts at 11:30am at City Hall Park (149 Church Street)
- Main Rally and “Die-In” starts at 12pm at the Waterfront Park
