Queens Students Raise $4K To Attend 'March For Our Lives' In D.C.

QUEENS VILLAGE, QUEENS -- This time next week, a bus full of Queens Village students will be en route to a nationwide gun safety protest in the heart of Washington D.C.

Thousands are slated to descend on the nation's capitol on March 24 for "March For Our Lives," demanding stricter gun laws in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that killed 17. Among them will be students from Martin Van Buren High School - thanks to 137 friends, family and complete strangers who donated to a GoFundMe page for their trip.

MVB student government leaders launched "Help Us Attend DC #MarchforOurLives" on the crowdfunding website March 8. The GoFundMe page, spearheaded by Marisa Kabas, asked for $4,000 to cover the students' bus to and from Washington D.C along with shirts for the march and snacks for the trip.

Less than a week later, they'd surpassed that goal.

"Thank you to everyone who donated," Kabas wrote in an update to the GoFundMe. "The students of MVB HS and I will be forever grateful. We hit our goal, and then some!"

By Friday, the page boasted a whopping $4,066 raised and messages of encouragement from complete strangers all over the country.

"It's a magnificent thing you guys and gals are doing," one man wrote on the page. "Remember, never allow fear to humble your humanity."

Another wrote: "Much love from Portland, Oregon. Bring the noise to their (old and hard of hearing) eardrums every day, and don't let anyone ever forget."

Kabas, of Brooklyn, and the students of MVB were not immediately available for comment, but some shared their reasons for attending the D.C. march on the GoFundMe.

"It's important to remember that students have a voice too, and we need to use it to spread awareness and make changes," wrote student Kanza Choudhry. "Guns are NOT our future."

March For Our Lives is demanding "a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress" to address gun safety issues, according to its website. Students across the nation came together to organize the rally after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly shot up Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 assault rifle on Feb. 14.

"When nobody else does, someone else has to," MVB student Anupreet Kaur said of the rally. "We need to step up."

Lead photo courtesy of GoFundMe.