Four women in Gillette who are fed up with what they see as government overreach and direct assaults on freedom are taking part in the “People’s Convoy,” a group of trucks traveling through Gillette on Thursday on the way to Washington, D.C.
Priscilla Hixson, Kelley Boltin, Patty Junek and Suzie Curtin got together Saturday to make posters encouraging participants in the convoy, a self-described grassroots campaign involving truckers and people of all professions traveling to Washington to seek an end to mandates issued in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
The convoy’s organizers plan to converge on Washington from different parts of the country on March 1 for President Joe Biden’s “State of the Union” address.
According to Hixson, it was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke martial law in Canada two weeks ago to shut down the “Freedom Convoy” in that country that prompted her to support the similar convoy that has surfaced in the U.S. within the last two weeks.
The women met for the second Saturday in a row to make the signs to show support for the leg of the convoy participants traveling on various routes from all regions of the country. In addition to the convoy stopping at the Cam-plex and CBH Co-op in Gillette, another group will stop at Little America in Cheyenne.
The signs made from poster boards adorned with large letters express pro-trucker sentiments and a rallying call for freedom and First Amendment rights. The women plan to hang the signs from the overpass along 1-90 though Gillette, Boltin said.
“It’s about our freedoms,” she said. “These mandates have been so unconstitutional, and people are standing up and saying enough is enough.”
Junek, whose poster read “God [Hearts]Truckers,” expressed her support for the men and women who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to keep supplies running across the country, as well as the importance of standing up for freedom.
The four women are not the only Wyoming residents showing support for the convoy.
Casper resident Laura Redmond is organizing groups throughout the state to deliver handmade baked goods and homemade cards to the truckers on her “Freedom Convoy – Wyoming” Facebook page, which also includes information about specific times, dates and locations that the convoy will be stopping in the state.
