Hundreds gather for No Kings rally in downtown Waterbury
October 20, 2025 | By Cheryl Casey | Correspondent
Waterbury’s No Kings rally lasted a little over an hour and attracted about 400 participants. Photo by Cheryl Casey
Approximately 400 people turned out on Saturday morning for the No Kings Day rally at the intersection of Stowe and Main streets in downtown Waterbury.
Rally-goers found sidewalk space along Main Street in both directions, waving signs and cheering at honking car horns.
Photo by Gordon Miller
Those closest to the central hub of the intersection danced to music blaring from a bluetooth speaker while elsewhere down the road, a group sang along to “Zombie” by the pop group, The Cranberries.
Waterbury resident Carol Baitz organized the event, motivated by her experience at a No Kings protest in St. Albans in June. “We needed one in Waterbury,” she said.
She began a dialogue with the community on Front Porch Forum in early September, sharing resources and inviting people to meet at the Waterbury Public Library to discuss and “raise awareness of concerns around our federal government.”
With that local conversation underway, Baitz then channeled her extra time as a retiree to add Waterbury as a poster rally location to the No Kings website and shared the information on Front Porch Forum, encouraging people to sign up. No Kings is a coalition of over 200 local, state, and national nonprofit and advocacy organizations supporting community organizing and nonviolent rallies against federal government actions that are perceived as undermining constitutional rights and democratic principles, according to its website.
Baitz said she was thrilled that all the details were “really easy to set up” and was pleased to find that over 60 people had registered. Then came the rally itself and the complete surprise at how many actually attended.
“It just shows every town should have a No Kings celebration,” Baitz concluded.
Waterbury resident Grady Hagenbuch, a high school senior, took on the task of estimating the crowd size at its peak. He reported counting 387 people just after 10:30 a.m., as a trickle of people was still filing into spots along the sidewalks.
Most attendees were local to the Waterbury area and surrounding towns. Waterbury resident Mary Koen couldn’t pass up an opportunity to raise awareness about citizens’ rights, especially the right to vote. “As long as people vote,” she said, adding, “They need to realize how important that is.”
Another rally-goer, who asked to be identified only as Marie, explained she was there because “I’m aghast at what is happening with our administration—where to start? What happened to ‘America first’?” she questioned, referring to the Trump administration’s recent $20 billion bailout of Argentina while Americans face rising health care costs.
Some came to the rally because they were already in town on a leaf-peeping vacation or to run the next morning in The Alchemist Brewery’s Heady Trotter 4-mile race in support of Green Mountain Adaptive Sports.
Visiting Vermont, Marti Erding and family joined the demonstration with last-minute signs made on paper bags. Photo by Cheryl Casey
A family group of eight from Minnesota and Washington states was vacationing in Stowe and, when they learned about the nearby rally, quickly made signs with paper grocery bags and headed to Waterbury. “We might be on vacation, but democracy doesn’t go on vacation,” said Marti Erding, of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Another group of three came from the Boston area for the weekend to run the Heady Trotter and acknowledged they would have been at the Boston rally if not for their long-planned trip. “Once here, we sought out a nearby rally,” they said.
There was no visible presence of counter-protestors, but as some cars drove along Main St., passengers held Trump hats or stickers out windows and several sign-wavers remarked on some unfriendly hand gestures aimed in their direction.
Pleased with her organizing efforts, Baitz said she wanted to thank those who took part, and she promises to continue to seek out ways to keep the topic in the public sphere.
“I would like to personally thank everyone that showed up to the ‘No Kings, I Love America and Democracy’ rally on Saturday,” she said in an email to the Waterbury Roundabout. “I will be back on Front Porch Forum in November with articles and next steps for anyone interested in helping to protect our fragile democracy.”