Some DeKalb residents drove nearly 20 hours to join the masses of protestors in Washington D.C. Saturday.

Thirteen people from the NIU Community for Peace Coalition traveled to the nation’s capitol for a march organized by the National Campaign for Peace in the Middle East, a coalition of religious, labor, human rights and student organizations.

Sonia Stevens was among the anti-war protestors and said there were between 250,000 to 350,000 people who participated in the march that wound around the White House.

Stevens said there were people from all races and ages there but the vast majority of the protestors were young.

“They were playing drums, dancing in the streets and climbing trees,” Stevens said. “There were so many people there that we were stuck in the crowd without being able to move.”

Doug Perry, a junior history major, said the streets were packed and it took him nearly two hours to move from one spot.

Perry said the demonstration was peaceful, which was admirable because sometimes people can get “militant.”

There was a vocal group of about 100 pro-war advocates, but Stevens and Perry both agreed that no one paid too much attention to them.

“I saw the counter_demonstrators but they really had no effect on the demonstration because they were totally outnumbered,” Stevens said. “They couldn’t cause any disruption like they can do on this campus.”

Perry said the anti-war movement should focus locally at NIU.

Angela Skorodinsky, sophomore painting major, said the march was very impressive and the people there had a lot of good things to say.

“I think the anti-war movement is growing. My only hope is it will grow large enough to stop the war,” she said.