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Eugene Residents Ride Bikes To Protest Nukes

Kyra Buckley/KLCC

Seventy-one years ago this month the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Saturday a couple dozen Eugene residents gathered at Monroe Park for Bike Around The Bomb to demand global elimination of nuclear weapons.

After a brief rally, activists embarked on a seven mile bike ride to signify the area destroyed by the atomic bombs.

Organizer Clara Schneid, says while this event is meant to remember the destruction that happened in Japan, it is also focuses on creating a positive future.

Schneid: "This is a way for us to raise awareness and to move forward together."

Event attendee Pat Hoover says she was born and raised near Washington State's Hanford nuclear site. That's where U.S. made the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Hoover says she's been an anti-nuke activist for years.

Hoover: "There are people that to this day when I say 'Hanford' don't know what it is or where it is. So anything we can do to say we've got nuclear facilities and a lot of toxic cleanup to do pretty much in our Northwest backyard is a good thing."

This is the third annual "Bike Around The Bomb" event. Similar demonstrations took place in 24 cities across the world.