FAQs

Yes! We would love to have you for whatever part you can join. Walk with us for a mile. A day. A week. Drive along with us. Join us for a meal at a meeting house! Please fill up our signup form to let us know when you might be joining us.

→ https://www.quakerwalk2025.org/signups

Our only formal demand to the federal government is for it to recognize and protect freedom of speech, due process, and other constitutional rights for all human beings on US soil.  We believe as Americans, Quakers, Christians, and other people of faith, that human rights are universal and come directly from God, not from citizenship papers.  

Beyond this core demand, we are walking as a provocation to other churches and civic groups, encouraging them to stand up and stick out their necks to defend our shared values from creeping authoritarianism.  Among these shared values are equality, tolerance, pluralism, integrity, justice, mercy, and hospitality.  These inform our choice to bring the Flushing Remonstrance to our congressional representatives.  We may, with the participation of our hosts and partners, write a modernized version of the remonstrance which can speak directly to the present moment, but it will hold to these core values and the spirit of the original.

Other Quaker organizations, mainly Friends Council on National Legislation (FCNL) and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), are doing concrete work on legal protections and immigration policy, and will have specific legislative requests representing the shared leadings among Quakers nationally.  There is an opportunity to join FCNL after our D.C. demonstration on May 22nd, for a citizen-lobbying day where you can help promote this legislative agenda if you so choose.

Our planned accommodations are mostly the floorspace in various Quaker Meeting Houses. We ask that people who will join us overnight have their own sleeping pad and sleeping bag. Please reach out to us if you need help acquiring these items, and we may have funding to help.

If you need a bed for health reasons, we encourage you to reach out to Quakers in the local community who may be willing to open their homes. We won’t have capacity to organize this centrally.

All you need is:

• Comfortable walking shoes and clothing

• Sun protection (sunscreen, long sleeves, hat)

• A water bottle!

• If you’re sleeping over -

  • Sleeping matt, bag & pillow

  • BASIC toiletries & medications

• Optional -

  • A sign or flag

  • Personal snacks, especially if you have dietary restriction

You do not need a full-size backpack. Bulky or heavy gear will be transported in the support van. (If staying overnight please use a duffle or other non-rigid bag.)

There are many people joining for part of the walk. Many places we are walking have public transit options such as buses. We cannot guarantee rides between various places, but want to help connect people.  We ask that people indicate to us if they have a car they are driving and if they need or can offer rides. Once we have that information, we will put people in touch directly so they can coordinate travel details.

We encourage people to make a plan for themself with a friend with a car if they only plan to walk part of the day. We will have a support vehicle driving close behind us with a emergency med kit and a few open seats. This vehicle and the support volunteers staffing it can convey you to our ending location for the day. We ask that you plan to have a contact person to pick you up if needed.

Since we will be walking largely along roadways (and protesting in a dangerous political climate) we as organizers cannot guarantee your safety.  Each participant must weigh the risks for themselves.  That said, we have taken several safety measures:

1. Our thoroughly scouted route minimizes the distance along dangerous high-speed roads, substituting protected trails and sidewalks when possible.

2. Vehicle escorts will guard our front and rear for long sections where we are forced to walk on the shoulder of a narrow roadway.

3. 2-5 walkers each day will be designated as safety marshals.

4. We will carry flags for the entirety of our journey, which will be dispersed along the column of walkers to help with visibility.

5. We will not walk after dark.

Many of our hosts along the way will generously be providing home-cooked meals and potlucks for us! For other meals (largely breakfasts and lunches) we will be preparing basic, vegetarian backpacking meals. We will purchase this food, and hope that participants will join us preparing and cleaning up meals! Please let us know about dietary restrictions and we will do our best to accommodate those. You are encouraged to bring snacks or food as needed.