A weekend pro-life march in Washington D.C. is prompting NIU students and a local pro-life organization into traveling to the capitol to be counted with other pro-life advocates.

The march, called “I Just Want to be Counted,” is expected to attract about 500,000 people, said Julie Synovic, co-president of Students United for Life.

Pro-life of DeKalb County sponsored tickets for six students from NIU’s Students United for Life to attend the event.

“We will be in Washington from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday,” Synovic said, who said she began supporting the pro-life movement when she was three years old.

Synovic said several celebrities will pariticipate, including Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair on “The Facts of Life” and Frank Runyeon, who plays Michael on “Days of Our Lives.”

“The march is a calling together to show everyone that we are are as strong as we think we are,” Synovic said.

Anita Zurbrugg, a member of Pro-Life of DeKalb, is riding a different bus to the march.

“I am going because I feel there is a biased view by the media that most people don’t feel,” Zurbrugg said. “There are a lot more people out there that are pro-life than the media would like there to be.”

Synovic said the group wants to prove to politicians, lawyers and doctors that there are more than a few pro-life advocates in the nation.

“I just want to be counted,” Synovic said.

Zurbrugg said she knows several concerned citizens from the area who are also going to the march. “There are a lot of people coming out of the woodwork,” Zurbrugg said.

Synovic and Zurbrugg said they expect pro-choice advocates also to go because there were pro-lifers at their march.