Staff report

CHILLICOTHE - With its roots in the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, you might think the Ross County Ohio Revolution is a one-party movement.

But organizer and founder Portia Boulger said nothing could be further from the truth; she said the group is trying to “bring everyone together as best as we humanly can.”

The group, which plans an observance of International Human Rights Day on Saturday, is looking to capitalize on the central theme of the Sanders campaign: working together to create a better community, and therefore, a better country. International Human Rights Day set up to honor the official Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948.

The free local event, which begins at 12:30 p.m. at the United Steelworkers Hall, 553 W. Fourth St., will feature local and regional speakers including Ross County NAACP President Adrienne L. D’Souza, Chillicothe City Councilwoman Jean Kerney and others. There also will be music and drumming from Women of Praise and the Friday Night Drum Circle.

“We are not a Democratic Party organization,” Boulger said. “We are a grass-roots organization.”

To that end, the Ross County group is trying to become a hub of support and resources for people who need help for any of a variety of reasons, such as racial injustice, poverty, or even addiction.

“We recognize a great deal of need in our community,” said Boulger, who was a delegate for Sanders during the presidential campaign. “This is our way of trying to bring all citizens and our neighbors together in peace and unity.”

While Boulger herself was involved in the Sanders campaign, she’s quick to point out that the essence of that campaign was unity for all people. She also thinks the theme of his campaign was part of a rising trend in community organizing.

“It was evolving for the last several years. There was an organic uprising, and the people at the Main Street level were learning that if we talk to each other and work together, we can achieve great things,” she said. "Bernie Sanders was the magnet that brought the people together, but the movement is more than just trying to elect someone as president.”

One of the group’s goals is to see Chillicothe become a city that backs the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination again Women, which was adopted by the U.N. in 1979. Local speaker Tammy Simkins will speak about the convention and its implications at the Saturday event.

If you go

What: Peace and Unity Gathering

When: 12:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 553 W. 4th St.

FYI: The Keynote Speaker will be Adrienne L. D'Souza, Chillicothe, Ross County NAACP president. Other speakers include Bart Henshaw, Chillicothe Ross League of Women Voters president; Tammy Simkins, ERA Action co-director and National Equal Rights Amendment leader; Chillicothe City Councilwoman Jean Kerney; Lance Soto, of the Cocopah Nation, Turtle Clan; environmental advocates Paula Baughman Mounts and the Rev. Lynne Hoover; Cheryl Beverly, founder of local addiction counseling service Cheryl's House of Hope; and Kezia Sproat, nonviolence educator and author.