The Occupy Athens movement held a housewarming party for it’s newly acquired headquarters Tuesday evening in exactly the fashion many would expect — a protest march.

The organization met at the Arch around 5:30 p.m. to join forces the “walkupation” — a group of protesters who have spent more than two months walking from New York to Atlanta.

Together, around 30 people went on a “victory march” to the Tracy Street office building the organization funded through donations.

Walkupiers enter Athens following a journey that has taken the movement through New York, Washington, Charlotte and other small movements. The group joined Occupy Athens in a march around the Classic City. Hilary Hogg/Staff

“We’ve only had it for about two weeks so we’re still trying to figure out what we can do with it, but it’s useful,” Occupy member and University student Lake Maner said.

He said the building will serve as the headquarters for the movement, hosting meetings and the publication of a newsletter they plan to launch next month.

Though the Occupation has moved out of the public spotlight of the Arch, Maner said it’s as powerful as ever.

“The biggest part of [the encampments] was to raise awareness and get everybody to notice us,” he said. “Now it’s just a nationwide and worldwide connection.”

Garth Kiser, a “walkupier” who has walked more than 800 miles, said he has come into contact with a lot of similar Occupy groups during his journey down the coast.

“We haven’t been to a big Occupy encampment since Charlotte,” he said. “What we’re seeing most at smaller communities like here, is a network of people without a physical encampment. But these networks are very strong. They exist all over the country. We’re laying the foundation for a big movement.”

Walkupier Bo Han made a similar observation.

“In Athens, [the network is] particularly strong. It’s a growing population just like all the occupations we have visited,” he said. “In Athens, in particular, I’ve seen a lot of harmony. And with that harmony, comes a lot of action. What is that main goal that Occupy Athens needs to come together with? Well, I think they’re producing that right now.”

Occupy Athens has already become vocal, speaking out against the possibility of a downtown Walmart.

Maner said they recently obtained hundreds of pages of documents concerning the project and plan to examine the way the situation was handled by local government.

He also said they’ve begun the process of creating an official student organization. Though he didn’t know exactly how many students were interested in joining, Maner was confident they would come up with the numbers they need.

But even as the movement migrates to the comfort of an office building, Maner said the time at the Arch was well spent.

“It was just to keep the open conversation with the public,” he said. “We talked to thousands of people. If someone was in downtown Athens for [the time] we were up, there’s a good chance we talked to them.”