RENSSELAERVILLE — Kate Martin says the Helderberg Hilltowns have been “alive with activism.”

A fledgling group — just two weeks old — called Hilltown Voices for Democracy tested that assertion on Saturday, holding a No Kings rally in Rensselerville’s town park.

Martin said the group hoped to attract 50 people; well over 100 showed up.

After listening to speeches from Hilltown Democratic leaders, the protesters marched along the town’s historic main street and on to the firehouse where they were provided with pizza.

Martin, 27, grew up in the Hilltowns. She says that, since the pandemic, younger people have been moving to the Helderbergs.

“We’re trying to reach a new demographic,” said Martin, who works for the Huyck Preserve in town and holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in unsustainable communities.

“We’re bringing various groups in the Hilltowns together,” she said. “There’s a lot of overlap in rural America.”

Asked, since much of rural America is Trump country, if she was expecting pushback at the rally.

“We don’t expect that here,” Martin said as the 1 p.m. start time for the rally approached. “The point is to be peaceful.”

A single sheriff’s patrol car was parked near the gathering but no officers were present at the park or on the march nor were there any counter-protesters.

Hilltown Voices has not joined Indivisible, the progressive group with chapters across the nation.

Martin herself is a member of Helderberg Indivisible, which rallies in Altamont every Thursday evening. The village at the base of the Helderberg escarpment is a long drive from Rensselaerville, she said.

Asked what the new group’s ultimate goal is, Martin said, “To create better communication and more solidarity in the Hilltowns … It’s really just about residents coming together. We’re very open to what people need and want in the Hilltowns.”

“Get out and shout”

The mood in the town park was festive on Saturday afternoon as neighbors, many of them holding signs, chatted with one another. Toddlers played in the park’s sandbox while older children rode bikes or trikes on the tennis courts. A teenage girl hung upside-down from the center of a jungle-gym dome.

Saturday was the second time No Kings rallies have been organized nationwide. The first was on June 14, when a military parade was held in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army, which was also President Donald Trump’s birthday.

An estimated 7 million people participated in No Kings rallies across the United States on Oct. 18, which organizers say is 2 million more than the estimated 5 million who participated in the first set of rallies.

Locally, crowds of protesters lined Route 20 from Fuller Road in Guilderland to Manning Boulevard in Albany.

Jim Kaufman of Berne said he came to the Rensselaerville rally because “they’re not going to miss me in Albany.”

Asked about the value of the rallies, he said, “It organizes people.” He urged, “Don’t just sit home and moan. Get out and shout.”

Kaufman, who is active in the Berne Democratic Committee and who is running for tax collector, concluded, “As long as we have the right to vote still, we should exercise it.”

Vivian from Westerlo, one of the younger participants at the rally, who declined to give her last name, said she was there because of “general dissatisfaction with authoritarian rule.” She learned about the rally on the No Kings website.

Carol Ash, who chairs the Rensselaerville Democratic Committee, was the first to speak and introduced the other speakers.

“It’s tough business to give up a Saturday afternoon … to do your duty,” she said, stressing, “It is a duty.”

“This is not what we signed up for,” she went on.

Kaufman then took the microphone, saying, “We’ve had other countries go through this with dictatorship.” He said he would like to avoid a bloody revolution to save democracy.

Kaufman said of the current members of Congress, “They’re terrified they’re losing their jobs — but they’re losing our country.”

Kaufman also said, “The worse things get, the more I pray.”

Amy Lauterbach, a member of the Knox Democratic Committee, read from prepared remarks.

“Each voice in America is important ….,” she said. “We’re equal citizens who work together every day …. Our common purpose is to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Lauterbach spoke of how neighbors in the Hilltowns help each other, say, pulling a car that slid off the road out of a ditch.

She urged her neighbors not to be “poisoned by lies.”

“We don’t want the sacrifices of the American Revolution and World War II to be wasted,” said Lauterbach.

Penny Platel, who lives in Rensselaerville now, said she grew up in the North Country, not far from Sackets Harbor. She spoke of an ICE raid on a farm there where “three children and a mom were taken.”

Residents led by the Sacket Harbor Teachers’ Association protested and a week later, the mother and her children were back in Sackets Harbor, Platel said.

“Less we think we don’t have power,” said Platel. Her voice cracking with emotion, she said how very proud she was to be from there.

Platel went on to cite Trump’s words on Jan. 6, 2021, when he said, “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Platel concluded, “That’s what we need to be doing now.”

Mary Ann Ronconi of Berne told the crowd, “It’s going to take another generation at least to recover from where we are today.”

Jerry Wallace of Rensselaerville, who carried a large American flag, said, “We don’t hate America. We love America … We are the true Americans.”

Bruce McKenna of Rensselaerville gave the closing speech.

He had an American flag draped over his shoulder, a flag he said he had used as a bedspread when he was in college.

“The flag belongs to us,” said McKenna.

He went on, “We cannot turn our heads any longer …. We cannot hunker down in our magical little town ….”

When faced with the question of what any one person can do, McKenna said, “Do not despair. This is what they want us to do.”

He also said, “There’s no act too small in this battle for freedom.”

Further, he urged, “Be empathetic …. This must be a movement driven by love.”

Finally, he advised, “We’ve got to stick together. The fascist playbook has always been to divide us.”

McKenna concluded, “We have more in common than what separates us …. We are the patriots.”

And then the march began. A long column of marchers, numbering over 100 people along with several dogs, wended its way along County Route 351.

“Symbollic of our battle — uphill all the way,” said Kaufman as he and the others navigated the centuries-old Helderberg bluestone sidewalk.

“Sponsored by Nobody!” said the opening sign. A toddler in a stroller, holding an American flag, brought up the rear.