Judy Bardes, a 93-year-old Elkins Park native, was featured in an article by The Philadelphia Inquirer for protesting the Donald Trump presidency on Saturday, April 19 alongside roughly 85 other residents of the Quadrangle senior community in suburban Haverford.

“Our democracy is at stake and whatever it takes to bring it back to a democracy rather than a dictatorship, I’m willing to work to participate,” Bardes told The Inquirer while carrying a sign reading: “Stop the Gestapo! !Bring [Kilmar Abrego] Garcia Home!” in reference to the Salvadoran refugee whom U.S. immigration agents mistakenly put on a deportation flight.

Bardes called the Trump regime’s insistence that he can’t be brought back “a lot of malarkey.”

“This is the first time I’ve been able to put myself, my body, into a protest,” Bardes said. “It’s still scary to think what I’m fighting against.”

The protest, part of the 50501 campaign (50 protests, 50 states, one movement) and Hands Off, was part of a larger protest movement nationwide against the Trump administration’s actions involving education, federal funding, DEI rollbacks, among others.

A previous iteration took place earlier this month, during which Rabbi Erin Hirsh, a Glenside resident, was quoted by The Inquirer. 

Bardes, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has served as an independent foundation manager and consultant within Philadelphia’s philanthropic community for decades, helping organizations including the 1957 Charity Foundation, the Donley Foundation, the Douty Foundation, the Foerderer Foundation, the Genuardi Family Foundation, the Hilles Fund, the Kynett Foundation, Lycoming Charitable Fund, Seybert Foundation and the Wyomissing Foundation.

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Photos: spiralq.org, Bryn Mawr College