MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - For the student activists who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the road to change is paved with conviction and highlighter-colored T-shirts.
Passers-by strolling down Lincoln Road could easily spot the bright attire worn by those taking part in the Road to Change Tour, Sunday afternoon.
The yellow/green neon hue of the T-shirts, which read “Register to vote with me,” caught the eye of Lea Montauti.
“I just turned around and then saw that they’re signing people up, and I’ve been putting it off for a while, so I figured it’s about time,” she said. “I registered.”
Hollywood student Matthew Tyler Yeary, who turned 18 in May, also took the opportunity to register. He praised the Parkland teens’ dedication.
“It’s a good cause. There’s issues that have been unresolved in the past, and they’re taking up the torch, and they’re moving it,” he said.
Participants on the Road to Change Tour are on a mission to overhaul the country’s gun laws by registering people to vote.
The teens have already traveled thousands of miles, but this weekend, they returned to the Sunshine State. South Beach was the first of several scheduled South Florida stops.
“As we have it right now, we’re going to all 27 congressional districts in Florida. That may change,” said Stoneman Douglas student Lauren Hogg.
7News cameras captured her brother, activist David Hogg, walking down Lincoln Road, clipboard in hand.
The teens were galvanized by the success of the March For Our Lives to address gun violence, which spawned some 800 sister marches around the globe and drew hundreds of thousands to the main event in Washington, D.C. on March 24.
Now, Stoneman Douglas students are hoping voters of every age register to vote and head to the polls.
“March For Our Lives was one day, and it was powerful, but it doesn’t mean anything if you just went out and marched,” said Lauren Hogg. “You need to continue this, and we need to march to the polls and get people registered to vote so they can do that.”
There are 24 other Florida cities on the Road to Change Tour’s schedule, as well as 18 national stops.
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