A celebration of science will be held through a series of events in downtown Rochester Saturday.
This year’s March for Science stems from last year’s march by the same name that was a call to action to unite as a diverse, non-partisan group advocating for trust in the field.
This year, President of Rochester's March for Science Group Stephanie Gallant says they’re more focused on promoting science in Rochester, and how it effects our economy, especially with the close relationship Rochester has to the field.
"We're fortunate that we live in such a community that has such a robust love of science and so we wanted to celebrate that, and kind of get that out to the public, so they can see when people say "science," that they mean so many different things. There’s such a broad use of "science" in this area, from environmental protections to robotics."
They’re calling on local leaders political leaders to support and help fund science based projects, and want science to be trusted and supported by the public.
The group didn’t want awareness to stop at least years march, Gallant says. So now they’re also a nonprofit organization, and want to highlight they are nonpartisan and have more events planned throughout the year.
Gallant hopes people who might not be comfortable with something that’s billed as a political event make the trip downtown anyway.
"It is more of a celebration. It’s more of a learning opportunity. We want to see people there because if they get even just one thing that they can take away and say oh I can do this different or oh I can learn about this now, then they'll increase their love of science and we hope that that’s contagious."
You might assume Gallant works in Science outside of her role here, but she doesn’t. She works in early education, and says deep down at our core, everyone is a scientist. That’s what keeps her passionate about this cause.
"To me, science is exactly what little kids are doing. They're exploring the world around them, trying to see where they fit, answering questions, trying things out to see what works to make sense of things. And that’s exactly what scientists do."
Gallant says they are not referring to the event as a protest, but rather a "Day of Science." That kicks off with a rally at noon in Martin Luther King Jr Park, with a march at 1pm to the Rochester Riverside Hotel for an expo and job fair.