On Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11, residents will be taking a five-minute stand along Sunset Cliffs to promote a better world.
Participants will be doing so simultaneously with men and women from across the world.
“It’s a time for everybody to be in concert around something that really matters to them,” said local organizer Betsy Marro, who participated in and organized the inaugural stand in Point Loma last year.
The global stand will take place at 1 p.m. local time Sunday.
Standing Women, a group from Ohio, inspired this event last year. In May 2007, thousands of men and women stood for peace in 75 countries around the world to show solidarity.
Locally, the event will take place on Sunset Cliffs at the intersection of Froude Street and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Last year, more than 50 people participated, and Marro said she hopes that number will more than double this year.
Participants will begin gathering at the Sunset Cliffs site at
12:40 p.m. and the stand will begin at 1 p.m.
The event will last for five minutes and feature ringing bells, but Marro said people will pay tribute in many different forms.
“Everybody will bring their own personal feeling and bit to it, and that’s what we were really marked by last year,” Marro said. “Everybody had some little different reason for coming.”
Although literature on the Standing Women Web site gears the Mother’s Day event primarily toward women, the event does not preclude men from participating. Marro said she encourages anyone to attend.
“It was inspired by the group Standing Women, but it’s the idea that we’re joining together ” men, women, children ” standing there for the same purpose. It’s not a woman-only issue.”
Marro said the best part of the stand is that it is very easy to participate in.
“For this kind of event, you just need to show up,” Marro said. “The feelings take care of themselves and then people’s ideas take care of themselves and whatever new thinking you have when you walk away from something like that “” that’s yours. And it carries forward in just about everything else you do.”
For more informationabout the global effort, visit www.standingwomen.org.
For details on the Sunset Cliffs portion of the stand, e-mail Betsy Marro at [email protected].