Shalom Baer Gee/MDN Minot woman Melissa Faris stands with a sign at Schatz Crossroads in Minot on Wednesday morning where a trucker convoy left to head to Washington, D.C. Faris said she felt God led her to pray for the convoy members.

A trucker convoy bound for Washington, D.C., left Schatz Crossroads in Minot on Thursday morning. The convoy is one of many across the country heading for Washington, D.C. inspired by the Canadian truckers’ protests against vaccine mandates in Canada.

The convoys are backed by different organizations and planned interpersonally or through social media. Bottineau-area trucker Derek Depauw, who is the leader of the convoy that left Minot, said the main goal of the convoy is to protest against mandates and prevent mandates from being put in place in the future.

“Our main goal is to basically eliminate all the mandates nationwide and prevent the government from having any overreach like that in the future,” Depauw said.

The United States Supreme Court shot down the Biden administration’s attempt to mandate employers with 100 or more employees to require their workers to get vaccinated or be subject to weekly testing, but Depauw said the administration still has those intentions.

“Who’s to say after the midterms, they won’t do it again? We want to ensure that those overreaches don’t happen again,” he said.

State and local mandates vary across the country. North Dakota currently has no requirements to be vaccinated or to wear a mask, but New York City requires persons 5 and older to show proof of vaccination to participate in indoor fitness or dining, indoor entertainment, and other meeting spaces like museums, sports arenas, bowling alleys, and arcades.

Depauw said that “all government overreach needs to be removed” across the country.

Another goal of the convoy is to promote the “right to try” different COVID-19 treatments without government involvement, Depauw said.

“We feel that it should be that doctor, that personal physician, to make that decision for the individual patient. We want the government out of the medical field,” he said in reference drugs like Ivermectin that some have touted as possible treatments to COVID-19.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic medicine that is used to treat some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea and is not authorized for use or prevention of COVID-19.

Depauw said the convoy consists of about 30 trucks in total, but approximately a dozen of those plan to travel all the way to D.C.

As far the organization of the convoy goes, Depauw said this particular group broke off from another Midwestern convoy during the planning phase because that group had planned to start in California. He said they used Facebook to organize. The American Truckers Freedom Fund website also posted the route to promote the convoy.

The American Truckers Freedom Fund states that they raise funds on an independent platform and support CDL-holding truckers who want to participate in convoys. Depauw said the group didn’t help plan the convoy, but they are a supporter.

The convoy also garnered local support. Eric Burdick, pastor of Northland Harvest Church in Minot and member of the Greater Minot Ministerial, a group of pastors in the Minot area who meet weekly for prayer, attended the send-off on Wednesday to bolster the movement.

“We (the Greater Minot Ministerial Group) just decided, we need to come out here and support and just pray for the crew and the freedom they’re standing for. I’m a military vet, so this speaks volumes to me. This is what I fought for,” Burdick said. “We’re free Americans, and we can choose what we want for us and our lives. I don’t think we need–not to sound kooky — but the giant government telling us what to do.”

The convoy’s route goes through Bismarck and Fargo and then Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio on its way to Washington. They plan to arrive on Sunday evening.

Last week, the Pentagon approved of the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops for traffic control in light of multiple convoys heading toward Washington this week, according to The Associated Press. The American Truckers Freedom Fund states that the movement is peaceful and non-violent.