Students receive White House treat

Wade children get to participate in Obama event

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Rykah Dowling, 5, and her sister, Amayah, stand in front of the White House gates with their ticket to the Halloween celebration. White House staff gave William B. Wade Elementary School 200 tickets to the event. The tickets were randomly distributed to students and family members. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

While many kids were going door to door trick-or-treating, a group of students from William B. Wade Elementary got candy from the best house in the country — the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

According to Principal Amy DiSabatino, Wade was chosen as one of the schools invited to participate in the Obama's first Halloween celebration at the White House.

DiSabatino said she isn't certain how Wade was selected other than White House officials saying President Obama wanted to include schools outside Washington, D.C., and that Wade's academic record did not hurt in the selection.

White House officials gave the school 200 tickets and with 800 students and many eager staff wanting to attend, DiSabatino decided the best way to dole out the tickets was in a random drawing.

Students who wanted to participate went home and got specific information requested by the U.S. Secret Service, including names of those interested in going and some information about each one.

That "application" was placed in a bag and DiSabatino and the school secretaries drew names until 200 tickets had been given out.

Each name drawn was a student name even though several staffers placed their names in the bag.

"I'm so excited," DiSabatino said about her students getting the opportunity to go to the White House and a chance to meet the president.

She said Monday students were talking about the event and many people were calling in asking about it. While 200 Charles County students and families from Wade got to attend, not all got to actually meet the president that day.

Rykah Dowling, 5, a kindergartner at Wade was Batgirl and was one of the few from Wade who got to meet the president and shake his hand.

When asked if she was excited, Rykah said yes but seemed more interested in having fifth-grader Kennedi Prince, 10, tell her account.

Kennedi, dressed as American Idol Jordan Sparks, said not only did she get to meet the president, but first lady Michelle Obama gave her a hug.

Kennedi said meeting the first lady, who was dressed as a cat was more exciting than meeting the president, "but that's just me," she said.

"I didn't know I was going to meet the president at first. He shook my hand and Mrs. Obama actually hugged me. ... [The president] was looking straight at me and said, ‘Hi,'" she said.

Kennedi said there were many people in costume, including a couple dressed as spaghetti and meatballs and someone dressed as a tree.

Rykah said she saw Spider Girl and Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz". The girls said the White House was decorated with gigantic carved pumpkins, including one that read "Happy Halloween."

Kennedi and Rykah said while at the White House they got jellybeans, candy with the president's signature on the box and a cookie shaped like the White House. Rykah said it tasted good, while Kennedi said hers looked nice tucked away in the freezer as a souvenir.

The girls did not see one another at the event as all the students involved had different times to show up. Kennedi said she saw some of her schoolmates but none of her classmates.

Rykah said after the celebration at the White House, she went home to go trick-or-treating. Kennedi said by the time her visit to the White House was over, she had just enough time to have dinner with her mom and little brother and then go home and tell her family about her day.

gphillps@somdnews.com