Minn. Man Raising Money To Send Students To 'March For Our Lives'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In a matter of hours, Joe Campbell's mission to spark change is building steam.

"Somebody just commented on here, 'Happy to help students from my alma mater participate in history,'" he said as he looked at a fundraising effort he started Monday morning. "Hundreds of miles away from where this happened, I had to do something."

The deadly shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida hasn't left the father of three's mind.

"I get emotional thinking about sending my kindergartener, my first grader to school knowing that these sorts of things are possible," he said.

So he channeled those concerns into a cause.

Campbell started a GoFundMe page, hoping to raise enough money to send 10 students from Henry Sibley High School, his alma mater, to the March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington D.C. next month.

The march's goal is to make student safety a priority to lawmakers and end gun violence in schools.

"My hope is that this trip to D.C. inspires them to do something that people in D.C. have not had the courage yet to do," he said.

Campbell says he'll never forgot the 2003 shooting a Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota, nor the 2005 shooting at Red Lake High school.

Both crimes combined claimed nine lives, adding to the painfully growing list of school shooting victims that Campbell is determined to stop.

"This is an epidemic that has hit every community in this country and we need courageous kids to come back and force action," he said.

If you'd like to make a donation to the cause, click here.