Alexis Stanczuk jumped up and down, paced back and forth and looked for other ways to stay warm as she stood seven long hours in the cold Jan. 20.
In the end, witnessing the inauguration of President Barak Obama was worth all the shivering.
‘A chill went through me about halfway through (Obama’s) speech,? said Stanczuk, a 2006 Clarkston High School graduate. ‘But it was no longer from being cold; it was from realizing what was going on, realizing Obama was the president, the first black president, and almost 2 million people were standing outside for just as long as I was to support this man. It was breathtaking.?
Stanczuk, who is double-majoring in political science and English at Grand Valley State University, attended the inauguration as part of a scholarship-funded trip to study the presidential transition.
Along with about 700 students from around the country, Stanczuk arrived in Washington D.C. Jan. 10 and took part in a seminar geared toward giving participants an understanding of how the nation’s capital functions.
As Inauguration Day arrived, she said, the streets were ‘flooded with people.?
‘The support we saw for Obama in D.C. was amazing, said Stanczuk, who spent half of last summer interning with Project Vote Smart in Montana, and the other half volunteering at Obama’s Grand Rapids office.
‘Everywhere you went, the crowd was so friendly. There was a huge cross section of people, from young and old, in every ethnic group you could think of’people from every single state.?
Stanczuk, who participated in the Marching Band, Octagon Club, National Honor Society, and Mime Troupe while attending CHS, said Obama first caught her eye when she learned about his plan for raising campaign funds.
‘I liked the way he wasn’t taking donations from interest groups, but focused on smaller donations from a huge pool of people,? she said. ‘I thought ‘that’s pretty good.? The more I read, the more impressed I was.?
The unity she saw on Inauguration Day gave her hope the new president would be able to accomplish the goals he spoke of during his campaign for office, Stanczuk noted.
‘Every single person was an Obama supporter,? she said. ‘It was really amazing because it was democrats and republicans both, and everyone was coming together for this one cause. It really makes me hopeful that he’ll be able to carry out this change he’s been preaching about for so long.?
Clarkston resident Stacey Underwood also had tickets to last week’s inauguration, but found the cost of last-minute airfare prohibitive.
Rather than see the tickets go unused, she passed them on to her son, Scott Schlimmer, who now lives in the Washington D.C area.
Because of security problems that shut thousands of ticket-holders out of the National Mall, Schlimmer was able to get much closer than he’d anticipated.
‘We were amazingly close,? said Schlimmer, who attended with girlfriend Stacey Platte, a Grand Rapids native. ‘We still couldn’t see him; we didn’t know where President Obama actually was, but we were very close.?
Schlimmer said it was the huge mass of people he found most notable.
‘There were millions of people in amazingly long lines,? he said. ‘It was unbelievable.?
Although he was leaning toward a vote for Hillary Clinton in the early stages of presidential campaigning, Schlimmer said he decided to support Obama after reading The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.
‘I was very impressed with his book,? Schlimmer said. ‘I think he may be one of the most intelligent presidents of our time.?