Organizers of a meeting scheduled for Friday hope to rally young people to participate in the March for Our Lives Birmingham event, scheduled to coincide with the national event on Mar. 24.

Ashley Causey, a senior at Helena High School, is helping organize information meetings for those who want to participate.

Two informational meetings are scheduled, one for youth and one for everybody else.

Youth, which Causey clarified as anyone attending school, including college, or those who have recently graduated, are encouraged to attend a Friday, Feb. 23 meeting in Irondale.

Organizers want to "rally youth first," Causey wrote in a statement to AL.com, because, "Youth were the beginning of these amazing marches, starting with those brave souls in Florida."

"The Monday [Feb. 26] meeting is open to anyone," Causey wrote.

Two Facebook groups have been created to help spread the word: "March for Our Lives Birmingham" and "March for Our Lives Birmingham - Tuscaloosa division."

March for Our Lives Birmingham, created Sun., Feb. 18, already has over 2,100 members as of Thursday morning. The Tuscaloosa group, created Wednesday, had nearly 200 members at publication time.

The national March for Our Lives group web page states the group was "created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar."

More than 50 student marches are planned across the country according to the group's national Facebook page.

The march is planned as a response to the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and staff were killed by a former student.

Their mission statement starts this way:

"Not one more. We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school. We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives."

Causey said it's important for students to take the lead.

"We need to step up and fight for the change we want to see in the world. We need to rally together, unify, and work with one another to make a difference."