CAMDEN — Meg Quijano spends her summers operating the Smiling Cow retail store in downtown Camden. On Jan. 21, she joined an estimated more than 1 million other women in the nation's capital to march and join other voices to be heard. According to Quinjano, it didn't really start as a women's march.

"It's kind of an evolving story,” she said. "A bunch of my friends and I were talking since last summer about how great it would be to go down for the inauguration of the first woman president in January."

Quijano said when the election came, it didn't really go quite the way they thought it would.

"Immediately after the election we started hearing about this women's movement," she said. "It evolved from one name to another, but that's what it wound up being called, was this Women's March on Washington."

Following the election, Quijano said there was a feeling of being let down,

"That was the system and I believe in the system," she said. "It just didn't feel great to us women, as we thought this would be a terrific way to gather with people who were feeling the same way."

Quijano said the more she heard about it the more political it became, but to her it was more than a protest, it was about gathering a community and that was what her group wanted to be part of.

"We all had friends around the city, so we all were going and staying in different places," she said. "My husband and I left and stopped in Rhode Island to pick up my daughter before heading down. All the while we kept hearing stories about more and more people showing up."

She said her friends gave her some Metro passes and told them to go to a station outside the city and not to worry, there would be hardly anyone there.

"When we drove into the station was the first time I had this feeling that this was going to be really big," she said. "There were a sea of people standing there with pink hats on, with signs and all cheering. I got very emotional."

Quijano said they managed to squeeze onto one of the first trains.

"We were so croweded on the train that it had to stop at the designated stops, but they couldn't fit one more person on," she said. "People were told you'll have to wait for the next train, or the next one, or the next one. We arrived in the city around 8:30 a.m. and the events were supposed to start around 10 a.m.

"Once in the city, we started texting our friends to try and meet up and then we started trying to walk into the mall where all the events were suppose to take place," she said. "It was just a sea of people. I've never seen that many people before. I'm from Maine. I've been places, but I've never been part of something that turned out to be well over a half a million people and some were saying it was over a million."

Quijano said they found a place to stand, but they couldn't move. And they were far, far away from where people were speaking.

"They had jumbotrons around," she said. "We could barley see by looking through heads of people to see the jumbotrons. Someone said go to a certain number on your phone and you could hear the speakers, so we were able to do that. Texting was very difficult because there were so many people on their phones, so we stood in one pace for four hours."

Quijaqno said they stood from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., and that the march was supposed to start at 1 p.m.

"We didn't know at that time the march itself had to be called off because they didn't have a permit for that many people," she said. "Word had gotten around that yes, the march had been called off, but we were to just go and do whatever. The crowd started spontaneously moving and we all moved toward the streets and we started marching and chanting."

Quijano said they marched down the streets for two hours and they could see that all the other streets had people marching in them as well.

"I was able to text back to some friends who were marching in Augusta," she said. "Also a cousin in Colorado, friends in New York and some nieces in California. Everybody was saying the same thing that it was just fabulous. Regardless of where you were, everybody felt we were doing this together."

Quijano said it was a very empowering experience.

"People were kind and funny," she said. "We had so many great laughs with people that we had never met before. There was no feeling that I saw of anger. We had concerns. Women's rights, human rights and an agenda that we felt might be threatening these rights."

Equal rights for all, the sustainability of our planet, of climate change, health insurance for all, LGBT rights, the future of education, Planned Parenthood and the National Endowment for the Arts. Quijano said it was a lot things they had heard might be in danger from the current administration.

"I think the world was amazed at how many people, and not just in this country, but from all over the world were marching out of concern and fear of the unknown,” she said. "We can hope for the best, but we have to be prepared to fight for what we believe in."

She said she felt as though she was what was making it happen and not just a cog in a wheel. She said everyone in the crowd seemed to feel empowered by it all.

"And we all felt like the march was not the end," she said. "We all felt like it was our clarion call, our wake up call. If we are concerned about what is going on, go home and start petitioning your Legislatures. Let your feeling be known."

Quijano said she was never once concerned for her safety. In fact, she said, they were amazed by how many police officers they didn't see. She said they saw one police dog and we did see a couple of National Guardsmen, which they had heard were there, but there was not one arrest that she knows of during the whole march.

In addition to the women and girls, she said a large number of people there were men. She said women could not have equal rights unless men were in it with them.

Quijano said there were many chants going on.

"Some of them were really interesting," she said. "Some of them I probably wouldn't repeat, but the one that stands out in my mind is someone would yell, 'Tell me what democracy looks like' and everybody would yell, 'This is what democracy looks like.' That was very emotional and it made me feel very patriotic and that's what this country is all about."

Quijano said the feeling has lasted, even though she is home.

"There was so much traffic," she said. "When we stopped at a rest area in Maryland, there was a spontaneous group of people saying these chants. And I thought we are all going to our own separate towns and this is where the work has to start. There's a group of women in Maine called the Midcoast Women's Collective and they are planning lots of meetings."

Quijano said if you were from Maine, you were supposed to wear some orange on your clothing.

"We did see some orange in the crowd," she said. "And we made our way over to them and they were from Mechanic Falls, so I have to say it was a great way for people not only from Maine, but for people all over the country to come together. It was special for me, and the fact that I got to participate in this with my daughter made it so very special in addition to being part of something meaningful."

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Reach Chris Wolf at news@penbaypilot.com