(CNN) — Survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre kicked off a nationwide advocacy tour Friday in Chicago. Some of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida, shooting attended an annual anti-violence march and rally in the southside of Chicago, led by students from St. Sabina Academy. The event coincides with the last day Chicago public schools are in session. “Something is happening across this country,” Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church told attendees at the rally. “Young people are rising up, from the north to the south, to the east, to the west. They are taking action.” JIM YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images A woman visits a mural at the "End of School Year Peace March and Rally" Friday at St. Sabina Church in Chicago. The Parkland students announced their “March For Our Lives: Road to Change” bus tour after their school’s graduation this month. The tour will include 75 stops across the country, and will focus on registering young people to vote and push for gun reform nationwide. Manuel Oliver, whose son, Joaquin, died in the Parkland shooting, painted a mural in honor of his son and to raise awareness on gun violence. Why Chicago? Parkland senior Alfonso Calderon explained why their first sojourn was to Chicago. “We’re calling this the road to change and what better place to bring change than Chicago, it’s not the people, it’s the way people see Chicago,” Calderon said. Scott Olson/Getty Images Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School joined an anti-violence rally in Chicago on Friday. Hundreds of people attended the rally holding signs demanding changes to gun laws and chanting “Chicago Strong.” Among the attendees were former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and entertainers Chance the Rapper, Jennifer Hudson and Will.I.Am. “Vote, vote, vote, let the youth lead,” Giffords told the crowd. Treyvon Bosley, whose 18-year-old brother was killed by gun violence in Chicago, said the Parkland students have helped bring attention to local groups. “I’ve been fighting anti-violence for eight or nine years now and we did a press conference and got no press at all and to see that Parkland got the press and allowed us to use their platform to spread our message of everyday shootings,” said Bosley, a leader for youth violence prevention group Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere. During the event, three Chicago youth read the names of 147 young people who were victims of gun violence this year, including a 1-month-old. Thousands then took to the streets to march for peace, the first steps on their own road to change. CNN’s Nicole Chavez contributed to this report.<doc-sep>The Chicago rally kicked off the “March for Our Lives: Road to Change” tour. Gabby Giffords joined survivors from the Stoneman Douglas shooting at a rally and march in Chicago Friday -- the first event in the young activists' new push to take their voter-turnout initiative on the road. Friday night's event kicked off the teenagers' tour, called “March for Our Lives: Road to Change,” that will encourage young people to register and vote in the upcoming midterm elections. The students behind the "March for Our Lives" movement plan to make 75 stops across the country. Besides Giffords -- a gun violence survivor and former congresswoman -- other high-profile activists who joined the teenagers in Chicago Friday included Jennifer Hudson and Chance the Rapper. Hudson, a Chicago native, sang "Amazing Grace" at Friday's rally. Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were killed in a 2008 shooting. Her former brother-in-law was convicted of the murders in 2012. "One thing my mother always taught us is you take care of home first," Hudson told the crowd Friday. "Stay positive and know that there is so much more to life than the block you live on." In the wake of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff, students including Cameron Kasky, Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg organized a youth-led movement to push for gun reform that spread nationwide. The largest event so far was the March 24 March for Our Lives rally, which took place in Washington, D.C., and cities throughout the nation. "Over the summer we're going to key congressional districts ... we're basically trying to promote the largest youth voter turnout ever in the history of the United States," Hogg told ABC News' "Nightline" earlier this month. "And making sure the kids that are affected by this most are able to vote on these issues." Hogg, who is taking a gap year before college, plans to spend his entire summer traveling to boost voter turnout among young people and focus on issues he believes all Americans can identify with. “The best way to prevent so many bad things is well-educated voting,” he added. “We have to make sure that the people that are in power that refuse to take action on this are no longer in power." The Parkland survivors joined students from Chicago's West and South sides for the rally outside St. Sabina Church. The church's priest, Father Michael Pfleger, spoke to the crowd as well. "I think there's a different movement in Chicago. Young people are impatient, unfiltered. One message I keep hearing over and over again: 'We'll out live you.' They're determined to make our children safe," Pfleger told Chicago ABC station WLS. Giffords has advocated for stricter gun control measures since she was shot in January 2011 at a political event in Tucson, Arizona. The gunman killed six people and injured 19, including Giffords, who was shot in the head at close range. Giffords returned to Congress later that year, but resigned in January 2012 to focus on her recovery. She and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, started a nonprofit to combat gun violence following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.<doc-sep>
Student survivors of February's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday kicked off their March for Our Lives: Road to Change national tour in Chicago. Hundreds gathered for the rally at St. Sabina's Catholic Church on Chicago’s South Side, the Chicago Tribune reported. Among them were featured guests including Chance the Rapper, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz), Jennifer Hudson, and Will.i.am. The event, dubbed the South Side Peace March, kicked off a 50-plus-stop tour for students who aim to rally young potential voters to register ahead of November's midterm elections. Student survivors and gun control activists spoke at the rally, touting the importance of taking action. ADVERTISEMENT “Four million people in this country turn 18 this year,” said Jammal Lemy, according to the Tribune. Lemy graduated from Parkland, Florida’s, Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 2016 and lost two close friends in the shooting. “We have the opportunity to empower the youth and to push a voter registration drive.” The bus tour comes months after survivors of the Parkland shooting reawakened the debate about gun legislation in the U.S. In March, one month after the shooting, students organized the "March for Our Lives" rally against gun violence in Washington, D.C., with several other marches taking place across the U.S. The event, which drew thousands, marked the beginning of student activists' movement to encourage young voting-age teens and adults to register. According to David Hogg, one of the shooting's most visible survivors, the bus tour aims to "promote the largest youth voter turnout ever." "Over the summer we're going to key congressional districts...we're basically trying to promote the largest youth voter turnout ever in the history of the United States," Hogg told ABC News's "Nightline" earlier this month. Student activists boarded the tour bus at the end of Friday's rally. The tour is staying in Chicago where they will hold a cookout and voter registration drive on Sunday.