JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Four friends from different upbringings and age groups have embarked on a march from Jacksonville to Washington, D.C., advocating for expanded social welfare programs and raising awareness about homelessness.<\/p>\n
The group plans to protest at the National Mall upon reaching the nation\u2019s capital, with their journey expected to conclude by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been homeless for about two months. And during my time of being homeless, I noticed, \u2018Wow, there\u2019s actually a lot of people out here who are in the same situation as me,\u2019\u201d said Gabriel Rzucidlo, who initiated the march. \u201cYou have all these homeless shelters that can\u2019t fit people. There\u2019s nowhere for them to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rzucidlo, a veteran, described the challenges of experiencing homelessness after serving his country. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks. It sucks, and there\u2019s many people out there, just like me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Goals of the march<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s mission focuses on several key objectives:<\/p>\n
Extending social welfare programs for unemployed individuals and people experiencing homelessness<\/p>\n
Establishing a living wage through federal minimum wage increases<\/p>\n
Raising awareness about homelessness challenges<\/p>\n
Spreading a message of peace and love<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to get a job when you\u2019re homeless. You don\u2019t have a P.O. box. You don\u2019t have anything like that to get the things you need to get set up for job applications,\u201d explained Aidan Fannin, one of the marchers.<\/p>\n
Faith and social justice<\/p>\n
The march combines elements of faith and social advocacy. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be talking with people, telling them our stories, telling them about Jesus Christ,\u201d said Ethan Fethanneff, another participant.<\/p>\n
Joel Blankinship emphasized the march\u2019s broader message: \u201cThe world fell a long time ago into hatred, and it\u2019s finally about to rise back up into love, but it takes everybody to be involved in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some might question the impact of their journey, the group remains committed to their cause. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it does nothing, we\u2019re still doing something for us because we\u2019re spreading the love of Jesus Christ and spreading our ideas,\u201d Fethanneff said.<\/p>\n
The marchers haven\u2019t set a strict deadline for reaching Washington, D.C., focusing instead on inspiring others to take action for causes they believe in.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Four friends from different upbringings and age groups have embarked on a march from Jacksonville…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[45820,502,1192,116,118,117,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-103581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-advocacy","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-homelessness","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}