Angela Fincher is tired of hearing gunshots at night while at her Tipton home, and she is hoping the second annual Selma Youth Prayer March will help those gunshots come to an end.

Fincher, a teacher at Tipton Middle School, is helping organize the event in its second year.

“This march is to raise the morality of young people. That’s what it’s all about,” she said. “We’re coming together to pray with our young people in the streets, hopefully to try to raise the morale to try to get them to stop the violence, stay in school, stay off drugs.”

The march, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 3 at 3 p.m., will go over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Fincher said she hopes hundreds of young people in Selma show up along with their parents. She said pastors and community leaders will also be present to send a positive message to the youth.

“We need the community. We need everyone,” she said. “A lot of people are talking and some of them are afraid because of all the violence in our community, but when we put action behind the talk, then we begin to see the results.”

Fincher said she saw a great impact on her students after last year’s march, and is hoping this year’s will do the same.

“It was a positive impact from the feedback that we got from the kids,” she said. “I saw the impact it had, even on my students. They were saying how they want to aim higher, stay in school and get an education.”

Fincher said Selma are youth is going through a tough time right now.

“If we don’t do something, it is going to get worse, so we’ve got to do something. Prayer always helps. I’ve never seen prayer fail. It’s the key, and with all of us coming together to pray for one agenda, we’re actually going to see an impact on our young people,” she said. “We definitely will. It might not happen overnight, but I guarantee you are going to see some positive results in our community.”

Fincher said she also hopes the march sends a message to parents.

“We have so many young people that are pretty much raising themselves, and they don’t have much accountability,” she said. “They are in the streets, and they are getting into all types of different things and criminal activities, and if the adults, the parents, the leaders, the educators can come out and try to rally with the youth, I think that would be a great impact.”

After the march, there will be a free concert at Concordia College featuring Fearless Love, Preacha Boi, Signature and Life Through Colors.

Fincher said the march and concert are free, and she hopes to have a great turnout and an even bigger impact.