They woke up before sunrise and dressed in green and gold, the colors of Great Mills High School.
A group of more than 100 students, alumni and teachers made their way from St. Mary's County, Md., to Washington, about 60 miles away. A week ago, some of the people on their way to the Washington Saturday weren't sure they even wanted to participate in the March for Our Lives, the youth-led rally against gun violence.
But then, just a few minutes before class started at Great Mills on Tuesday, a 17-year-old boy fired his father's gun in a first-floor hallway at the high school. Two students, including the shooter, died and another was injured.
Members of the close-knit community in Southern Maryland say the school shooting changed them. Some said they felt obligated to march now that they too are members of the grim yet growing club of students who have seen blood stain the floors of their hallways, classrooms or playgrounds.
"After hitting so close to home, it becomes that much more real to us," said one of the March organizers, 18-year-old Jillian Carty. "We want to be part of the movement to stop gun violence."
Late Thursday night, 16-year-old Great Mills student Jaelynn Willey died after her family decided to remove her from life support. Willey was left brain-dead after the shooting, during which officials say 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins targeted her with a handgun.
Rollins was then shot by the school resource officer, and the boy later died at a hospital. There's evidence that Rollins and Willey had "a prior relationship which recently ended," according to the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office.
A 14-year-old boy, Desmond Barnes, was also injured in the shooting but has been released from the hospital. The resource officer was unharmed.
Melissa Willey, the girl's mother, said at a news conference that her "daughter was hurt by a boy who shot her in the head and took everything from our lives."
When news of the girl's death spread, Great Mills students took to social media, promising to be Willey's voice at Saturday's march.
As the group made their way toward the main stage Saturday, they chanted, "We are Great Mills!"
Dylan Hill, 16, walked with his arm around his classmate Shreya Peoples as the Capitol building came into view. Tears streamed down Peoples' face as she thought of Jaelynn, who she used to ride the school bus with every day.
On Tuesday, Peoples saw her friend's body lying in the hallway as she left the school.
"She still had life ahead of her," she said. "Nobody deserves to die by a gun."
Saturday's march in Washington was organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of a deadly shooting last month. The survivors of the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland, Fla. _ 17 people were killed _ have emerged as undaunted advocates for gun policy reform.
Activists from Parkland have amplified the voices of Great Mills students in the days since the Maryland shooting, echoing their hope that schools will never again be the site of bloodshed.
"We will march for you, Jaelynn Willey," Jaclyn Coring, a leader of the movement, said on Twitter. "We will march for all the students of Great Mills who will forever be traumatized because of what happened on Tuesday."
For some, Saturday's march represented their first time taking part in a protest or rally.
Mariha Robinson, a Great Mills alumna, said that the March for Our Lives cause feels personal in a way others haven't.
"This means more because it happened in my own backyard," said Robinson, 19. "The government needs to get a handle on making sure things like this don't happen, especially to people who have just begun their lives."
The students came to Washington wearing green and gold face paint, beads, and leggings. Many of their signs were in honor of Willey _ a common design featured a silhouette of her face and the word "Enough."
Libby Sanders, a 17-year-old junior, held up a sign listing the sites of school shootings since the 1999 Columbine High School mass shooting in Colorado. At the end of the list: her own school's name.
"My school shouldn't have to be part of this list," Sanders said. "It made me sick to my stomach to write Great Mills."
One of her classmates, 17-year-old Kayla Wells, said Saturday's march was about showing politicians that a new generation will soon be heading to the polls. Wells wants stricter gun control laws passed, including one to raise. the minimum age to buy a weapon.
"We're about to turn 18," said the Great Mills senior. "Things are about to change."
But Great Mills organizers said they didn't come to Washington with a standard set of political beliefs or demands.
"A lot of people say it's gun reform and taking guns off the street," Emerson Schaeffer said. "That's not why we came. We came to show support for the community that we come from."
