

Zack Goodman is not your typical 12-year-old. He just organized the third pro-life march held in the Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colo., an event he initiated in 2009 as a 10-year-old.
Zack is no less than a pro-life powerhouse.
After his dad Phill Goodman’s assignment in the U.S. military brought the family to Colorado Springs, Zack and his mom, Christina Huschak, were watching the March for Life and the Walk for Life West Coast on EWTN. He thought it would be great to go in person. When his mother said it was too far and it was too bad they didn’t have anything in the area, Zack took only a moment to think about it.
As he describes it, “I came back 30 seconds later and said, ‘Well, I have to start something here.’”
Talk about initiative. Zack designed a pro-life logo, worked up a presentation for Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan, and e-mailed Walk for Life West Coast founder Dolores Meehan for advice on how to start a march in Colorado Springs.
He also started working under the diocese’s Respect Life director, Father Bill Carmody.
Zack basically talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights “and equated abortion as the basic civil-rights issue of the day,” remembers Father Carmody. “That’s outstanding. He gets it. I’ve been in the work 20 years but never made the concrete connection.”
The first year Zack invited Alveda King, Martin Luther King’s niece, to speak. She couldn’t attend because of a prior commitment, but she sent a videotaped message to play at the event. To continue the civil-rights connection, for each of the three years now, this march has been scheduled for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Father Carmody calls the timing providential. “This was Zack’s idea, his vision,” he says. “He gets all the credit.”
With Father Carmody’s direction, Zack presented his vision to various diocesan committees and organizations like the Knights of Columbus and Serra Club. Then he launched Youth 4 Truth, an ecumenical youth group getting young people active in pro-life activities by helping with the march and organizing the youth rally held on the day before the march.
That first year, at age 10, Zack wrote a pro-life play titled “God Is Calling. Are You Answering?” It was performed several times, including for the Catholic Daughters state convention.
This year, at his invitation, following the Holy Hour of Eucharistic adoration that started the day’s events, bishops from all three Colorado dioceses concelebrated the March’s Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral: Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan, who has attended every march, Denver Auxiliary Bishop James Conley, who was at last year’s event, and Pueblo Bishop Fernando Isern.
Hundreds more joined the march to the city’s Acacia Park for the outdoor rally with speakers headed by Pastor Walter Hoye II, founder and president of the Issues4Life Foundation in California. Then everyone marched to the old Planned Parenthood facility for prayers.
Home-schooler Zack is tireless in his pro-life work. After this Mass and at his parish, he distributes “Precious Feet” pins. He gets plenty of help giving them out for what he calls the “Precious Feet Challenge” from the Squires, the Knights of Columbus order for youth, who also led the march. Zack keeps the “Precious Feet Challenge” going well beyond the march. This year, 2,000 pins were distributed to approximately 10 churches, including a Protestant church.
In fact, Zach is not only a member of the Squires, but has achieved the program’s highest rank, Squire of the Body of Christ. Only 26 members worldwide have achieved this distinction, according to the Knights of Columbus. He is the youngest Squire ever to earn this honor.
He and the Squires also hosted a pro-life contest for the diocesan elementary and high schools and home-school students as well.
He credits Father Carmody with the “I Survived Roe v. Wade” T-shirts that were distributed to everyone at the rally under 38 years old.
“It basically shows [that] everyone under 38 literally did survive after Roe v. Wade was passed,” Zack says, adding extra emphasis: “Wow! I really did survive.” Plans called for 1,000 shirts to be handed out at this year’s march.
Father Carmody says it’s powerful to see all the youth wearing these shirts.
“They get it,” he says. “They understand it. By the grace of God, they survived. They had a 1-in-3 chance of making it. They recognize one-third of their generation is gone, and I find them truly on fire for life.”
Results from the marches speak for themselves. “I’ve seen a lot more young people do a lot more pro-life things in their churches,” Zack relates. “We have a walk for life for a local pregnancy center, and one 10-year-old girl went out and collected $500 for the pregnancy center because she couldn’t let the babies die.”
Zack sees the Precious Feet pins making a difference too. People are “getting it,” he says.
The Youth 4 Life are working together on the Life Chain, where they display fetal-development posters from conception to birth.
Zack’s original plan calls for the march to be regional, not just local.
“He wants to do something for the Mountains area,” says Father Carmody of Zack’s vision. “We’re getting people from Pueblo now. We’ll keep it growing. His vision is awesome.”
Denver’s Auxiliary Bishop James Conley met Zack after the young march organizer invited him to participate. He sees Zack as remarkable.
“He emceed the whole event. He very articulately introduced each one of the speakers,” Bishop Conley says. “You can tell he has a great passion for life. When he invites people to come to speak, he commands a lot of authority for a little guy. … It’s a great tribute to the parents to have children like this involved.”
In fact, Zack says he and his mother made up his motto for the march, related to the song “This Little Light of Mine.”
“If we all let our little light shine, we can set the world on fire,” says Zack. “Basically, you can sum up me and what I’ve done in that. In the pro-life movement, if we all do something small, like giving out Precious Feet pins, we’ll light the world on fire with God’s fire of love and truth.”
Register staff writer Joseph Pronechen is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.
This is a good example for all of us to consider. It is estimated that Jesus was 10 to 12 years old when he was found by Joseph and Mary teaching in the temple. So now here is Zack taking significant actions as a 10-to 12 year old to organize the March 4 Life three staight years. Everyone needs to take it seriously that abortions are the most serious evil in our day - it is like the deaths on 9/11 happening every single day! Let us all do something to end of abortion!
It will take the voices of these Survivors to wake up our stony hearts. It is too easy for a “rational adult” to talk around the real issues and to make excuses for this horror of horrors…abortion. We as adults can help to spread the word that the children get it…it’s time We Get It…
God bless you. A saint in the making. You are truly an inspiration, thank you for all that you do.
Zach Goodman…you are a living saint! I praise and thank God for you and I pray that your witness of being a light in the darkness…a light you did not hide under a bushel basket…will enkindle a fire in the spirits, minds and hearts of many, many other young people and older folks as well. In a world where even Catholics and other Christians are complacent, apathetic and self-serving as they seek to be entertained endlessly in one way or another, you are out there thinking, not of yourself, but others, especially the little ones. Congratulations to your mom and dad for raising such a fine young fellow as you are. As a senior who worked in a variety of ways as a pro-life organizer and worker, etc., I know what it takes to do this type of ministry. So I can appreciate what you are doing; and I say may God bless you abundantly with a long life of service to our Lord and His people and especially to those whose lives are being threatened or destroyed. Kudos to you dear child of God! May St. Michael, the Archangel protect you!
Zack, may God bless, guide and protect you now and always.
Dear Zack,
Thank you for your commitment to this effort. There are probably a lot of people who think about doing something, but never do it. So you are the little light that God is using to ignite many other lights. Pretty soon everyone will know that a real baby is in the womb from the very beginning and that it is the baby’s right to live. It is a privilege to know you and your family, who so wholeheartedly support you and who believe and teach that with God all things are possible. God is using you mightily because you listen and obey and put into action what he tells all of us. Fantastic example!
Great job, Zack! Makes me worry less about the future of our land knowing it’s in the hands of people like you. May God richly bless you in the fight to save our babies and our country. I sincerely hope that your zeal is contagious to other people so that we can truly tag you with the title of God’s Greatest Generation.
A great example of the Holy Spirit working through a beautiful, innocent young soul.
What an incredible young man…wise beyond his years! What an inspiration! Thank you, Zack and May our Lord protect you and give you His graces and peace as you journey forward in life.
Amazing wonderful story! May God Bless you child! May the Holy Spirit come down from Heaven and inspire more hearts like yours to see the sin of abortion, and the evils of Satan under the influences of “Pro-choice”. Only through the bearer of God, Our Mother of Perpetual Help will we able to battle these demonic abortionists into the realm of Satan! God loves ALL children, unborn or born! May we also pray for the unbaptized babies who are now suffering in purgatory due to the sins of their parents! May God grant them holy absolution for the sin they committed, and bring these babies into his bosom into his most holy reconciliation! God bless EWTN!
We have know Zach and his family for 8 years. To see what an incredible young man he is growing up to be is beyond words! Talk about out of the mouths of babes! This is an inspiration to cover the globe with this message. Thank you so much for posting this. The military catholics of the US have a great opportunity and privelage to be envoys of Christ. I am so very proud to be one. This is so wonderful! Thanks be to GOD!
What an awesome testimony of what one person can do! We are proud of you Zack, and we praise God for what He is doing through you!
May we follow your example.
The Watts Family