Local resident Sheri Zada helped spark this weekend’s “March for Our Lives” in Benicia. (Photo courtesy of Sheri Zada)

Gun violence hits close to home for Benicia resident Sheri Zada. Her two sons avoided becoming  statistics of gun violence. Troy was on the campus during the 2014 Isla Vista massacre while attending the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her other son, Kyle, got off a train from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015 before a hijacker opened fire and was subdued by passengers as his gun jammed.

With these close calls, one could say organizing last weekend’s March for Our Lives in Benicia is something that has been building up for Sheri Zada. She was born in Chicago, and as a little girl, her father moved the family down to Southern California, where she went to college and met her husband. The family moved to Dallas for a period, due to her husband Alan acquiring a new job, but they would not be gone from California for too long. The Zadas eventually moved back to the Golden State, this time settling in Benicia.

“We love it here,” she said. “This little town is like a little gem nobody knows about. Some people go like, ‘Where is Benicia?’ and you say “Oh, you don’t know? It’s the perfect little town.’”

Some of the jobs Zada has held include teacher, event coordinator and running her own business. Now retired, she tries keeping busy with volunteering, being a part of the Benicia Yacht Club and trying to get a foot in the door at the Benicia Public Library.

Throughout her life, Zada has held the motto of helping everyone. It was the reason behind her organizing the march. She was horrified after the Parkland shooting this February and felt the need to do something.

Planning for the march began when Zada made a post in the Facebook group “Benicia Happenings,” asking if people would be interested in putting a march together. Zada said she got positive responses, which lead to her forming a committee. Along with fellow committee members such as Marilyn Scrutchins, Roger Straw and Vice Mayor Steve Young, work began to form on the Benicia March for Our Lives. The ball began rolling with Benicia High School students and groups like Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety helping the committee make the march a reality.

She never organized anything like the March for our Lives before, but on March 24. the rally Zada put together drew anywhere between 800 and 1,500 people to the downtown.

“The presence of everyone here with the signs and energy, it was palpable,” Zada said after the March. “You could totally feel the hope that there is going to be some change.”

The March for Our Lives committee met recently at Pizza Pirate for a post-march discussion about what went wrong or right with the rally and where the group wants to go forward in the future. There is an early discussion going on about starting a scholarship for students.

“You have shootings at schools, churches, and malls, basically anyplace,” Zada said. “People shouldn’t have to worry about that. Kids shouldn’t have to go to school worrying about it. We shouldn’t have to worry about it or going to a public concert and worrying about it, thinking about where the nearest exit is. Really, it is a scary time to live in and it’s bothering some people we are taking an initiative, but I think it really important that humans lives are worth more than owning a weapon that shoots that many rounds.”

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