As the March for Our Lives rally against gun violence took the nation by storm this weekend, Oklahoma City Thunder player Carmelo Anthony revealed he played a role in sending 4,500 Baltimore children to Washington D.C. for the rally. 

The 33-year-old provided 80 to 90 buses to make sure Baltimore kids were in attendance at Saturday's demonstration.  

“It’s a special moment…to see how powerful the youth are right now, and the voices are being heard," Anthony said of the march.

Although he's a Brooklyn native, Anthony grew up in Baltimore and attended school in Towson, Maryland, before enrolling in Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.

March for Our Lives was created, inspired by and led by students from all over the country. The rally was organized in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., which took the lives of 17 students and faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The message behind the march was clear: young people are done risking their lives waiting for legislators to implement stricter gun control. 

While the epidemic of mass shootings has been the narrative inspiring gun control debates, black children have been advocating against gun violence for years. Just last year, gun violence claimed the lives of more than 350 people in Baltimore. 

“It’s bad, and it needs to stop, and it starts with us,” said 17-year-old Baltimore student Raydonna Hawkins during Saturday's march.

“It seems like it’s starting to make a difference. They’re paying attention. It’s nice to have positive attention for once,” said Arron Fleming, a 17-year-old high school junior who's also from Baltimore, of the protesters who stopped to read his sign that read, “In one school year, we lost 7 of our children to gun violence.”

These kids are amazing to watch.

BaltimoreCarmelo AnthonyMarch For Our Lives