News
- Dayton Students Take in the Inauguration by Shelly Franklin
- How I Got to Pose with Rocky. Oh Yeah, and I Got to Go to the Inauguration Too! by Ashley Donohue
Dayton Students Take in the Inauguration
Dayton students visit George Washington's home, Mout Vernon, in Alexandria, Virginia
I had the opportunity in January to travel with 12 wonderful high school students to Washington D.C. to witness a historical inauguration. I was amazed by the people we met and the places we visited. The weather was so cold, but our positive energy kept us warm. We became part of something much bigger than any of us had ever seen; a crowd of over 2 million people!
The kids were able to attend their own Inaugural Ball. We visited all the major monuments in DC, the Smithsonians, and even The International Spy Museum. We took a day trip to Mt. Vernon, Monticello and the home of James Madison. We spent several hours at the Pentagon. The students were always ready and excited about the day's events which made my job really easy. Two of the boys remarked that they felt so lucky to be students at Dayton High School.
I cried when the kids and I got to visit Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We all felt so patriotic!
We saw Michelle Obama's birthday cake on the train next to us at Union Station.
There were no arrests for unruly conduct in the city of Washington DC that day.
All the people were singing!
Our bus driver was great! The food was great! The aquarium in Baltimore was great!
How I Got to Pose with Rocky. Oh Yeah, and I Got to Go to the Inauguration Too!
Having never traveled outside of the tri-state area, a trip across the country seemed a bit daunting. But excitement overrode the fear as we boarded the plane that would take us from Pasco to Salt Lake City, Utah- the farthest away from home some of us had ever been. Following our flight to Salt Lake was another that would take us straight on to Philadelphia, PA.
Andrew Mascall, Kirsey Sunderland, Mindy Hodgson, Mason Clark, Gus Froese, Devon Strang, Caylyn Rolph-Tate, Molly Payne, Colleen Delp, Cheyenne Bell, Adam Strobehn and I made up the student assembly. We were chaperoned by two of our teachers, Shelly Franklin and Mary Pryor; Lindsey Pryor also came along as a volunteer.
Mason Clark, the Liberty Bell and Gus Froese
During a tour of Philly, we came upon the illustrious "Rocky Steps" – the steps of the National Art Gallery where the famous scene from the film Rocky was filmed. My group not only got to see these stairs, we got the full experience– running up the stairs, whistling "Gonna Fly Now" whilst we ran. Following our 3 minutes of fame, we then got our pictures taken with the famous Rocky Statue, with his boxing gloves raised high in the air above his head. The next morning we took a tour of Independence Hall, then walked across the street to gaze at the Liberty Bell.
That night we left on a train that took us to Alexandria, Virginia; a city 8 miles away from Washington D.C. Over the next 6 days we would see so many amazing things, I had no idea what an adventure I was in for. These included too many Smithsonian Museums to count, my favorite of those being the Smithsonian Institution of Air and Space. We also walked through the Museum of American History and the Newseum which is a museum dedicated to journalism and the history of journalism. We unfortunately didn't get very close to the Lincoln Memorial because the Inaugural concert was being held on it. We did, however, get to see the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument and the White House. We also visited the Capitol Building and the houses of three different presidents–James Madison's Montpelier, George Washington's Mount Vernon and, my personal favorite, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. The Korean War monument, the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial were also on our itinerary.
On the eve of the inauguration, the Washington Workshop's Foundation, which had been gifted six inauguration tickets, raffled them off to six lucky students who would have the pleasure of attending President Obama's inauguration. Luckily, Caylyn Rolph-Tate and I were drawn in the raffle and would be part of the madness that would ensue the next morning.
Our bus dropped us off in the heart of D.C. Everyone got off and, almost instantly, a man was calling "silver tickets, last call for silver tickets." That was us. We probably walked 5 miles around the national mall (which was packed beyond beilief) to get to our gate. It was an absolute mess – the crowds were ridiculous. I couldn't see over the people in front of me as Caylyn and I were scrambling to keep up with the group. We finally arrived inside the gate and waited 20 minutes until we moved forward. Approximately every 15 minutes we would move ahead about 3 feet and stop again. A man who was angry about the wait climbed a traffic light pole and began shouting at the security guards.
We eventually got in 45 minutes later when a group of people pretended to leave and told us to fall in behind them. They told us that the actual way to get in was down the road to the left. We followed them and eventually got into the National Mall. By then people were running everywhere trying to get the best seat possible for the inauguration. Finally, we went through security and got to our places beside the reflecting pool, where we witnessed history. It was a great experience and I strongly encourage everyone to attend an inauguration if the opportunity arises.