A group of young Okotokians held a peaceful rally this afternoon to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Around twelve residents, many of them recent high school graduates, gathered near the Okotoks post office with signs declaring their support and solidarity for the movement, which has seen activists gather en masse in cities across North America following the brutal death of George Floyd on May 25th.

The event's organizer Alexandra Vander Maaten says the message should resonate everywhere, including smaller towns like Okotoks.

"We just wanted to make it known that the message has hit even the small little cracks in the world. That, even though there are definitely some people that are ignoring the problem, there are definitely people that are listening and that understand it's an issue. We just want to show as much support as we can."

She says the support has been overwhelming.

"We've actually gotten a lot more positivity than we had expected when we first got here. There's a lot of people honking and telling us we're doing a great job, we've had stores across the street coming out and saying we're doing a good job, we got support from the town hall to do this today, so it's actually a lot more support than we thought we would get."

Despite a majority of passersby expressing support for the message, Vander Maaten says there were a few who weren't as supportive.

"We've had a couple people tell us to 'get a life' through their windows. We've gotten a couple of middle fingers and rolling of eyes but that's about it. We're more focused on the positive."

Senior Peace Officer Sam Burnett, who was present at the event, says he wanted to make sure the activists weren't met with virulent opposition.

"They let us know ahead of time that they were coming out here, and because it's a group of younger people, we just wanted to come out and ensure that they're able to hold their rally and be safe while doing so. While I've been out here we've had a few people come by with some not so nice comments but it seems overall pretty supportive."

Burnett says misconduct or violation of health orders weren't concerns when it came to the event.

"We are not concerned at all about the young people here not following rules, I believe they've made their own sign on their own guidelines they want to keep, they've been absolutely fantastic."

Vander Maaten says the event was somewhat of a tester, and that she'd like to see other events of its kind held in the future.