SB students head to D.C. for inauguration
Katherine Whorley won’t be able to vote for several more years,
but this election season she followed the candidates closely.
”
I wasn’t sure who I wanted to win, but I was very interested in
it,
”
she said.
Whorley, an eighth-grade student at San Justo Middle School,
will be attending the 44th presidential inauguration Jan. 20.
SB students head to D.C. for inauguration
Katherine Whorley won’t be able to vote for several more years, but this election season she followed the candidates closely.
“I wasn’t sure who I wanted to win, but I was very interested in it,” she said.
Whorley, an eighth-grade student at San Justo Middle School, will be attending the 44th presidential inauguration Jan. 20.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for me,” she said. “I won’t get another chance to see the inauguration of the first African-American president.”
Whorley was invited to attend the Jr. Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference in Washington, D.C. from January 17 to 20. The conference includes a stop at the inauguration, a black tie ball and lectures with several well-known former White House officials.
“We are having some very important keynote speakers,” Whorley said. “Al Gore and Colin Powell.”
As for the ball, she said, “I think it will be pretty cool. We get to dress up and have a little fun.”
Whorley found out she was invited to the conference in June and she has been saving up her babysitting money, and asking local businesses and organizations for donations since then. She raised $2,500 for tuition with help from such groups as the Rancho San Justo PTO, DeBrito’s and Off the Chain Bikes (for a full list of donors, visit www.pinnaclenews.com.)
“It was very nerve wracking,” she said, of asking people for money. “I worked really hard to get to it and just the anticipation of something I worked to do” makes it mean more.
Whorley is not the only San Benito student who will be in Washington D.C. for the inaugaration. A group of 11 students will travel to the nation’s capital with San Benito High School teacher Laurie Vierra as part of a Close-up Club – a civic-minded group on campus – field trip.
“They have been working for this for two years,” Vierra said,” Before they knew who was running, before they know it was going to be historical.”
Though Vierra contacted a local congressman for tickets to the inauguration, they weren’t able to get any.
“But we will be in capital mall and there will be excitement,” Vierra said. “This is something that could change their lives.”
Danielle Allemande, a senior and the treasurer of the club, is one of the students attending.
“I’m super excited to go,” she said the week before the trip. “It’s a trip of a lifetime.”
She said Vierra is “a wonderful person. For her to be able to do it for all of us it is big of her.”
Vierra is the sole chaperone on the trip.
Allemande said she was most looking forward to “just being there in general. Just seeing everything.”
Allemande and the other students did plenty of fundraising and Vierra said she was able to give each student $350 for the trip.
“We have been raising most through selling candy and asking for donations,” Allemande said. “It was a lot of work.”
The students will visit historical sites and will attend an inaugural ball.
“I’m really nervous, but at the same time I just feel like the time is going by,” Allemande said, last week. “A couple months ago, we had 120 more days [to wait], and now it’s only 10, but now it’s going by a lot slower.”
The students will share their experiences in the Weekend Pinnacle when they return from their trips.
