For freshman Kelly Ehrenreich, braving the frigid temperatures and massive crowds in Washington, D.C., during Tuesday's presidential inauguration will be well worth it.
Ehrenreich, who served on the board of directors of UD for Obama and recruited volunteers to campaign in Philadelphia almost every weekend prior to Election Day, said she is most looking forward to seeing President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural speech.
"I just feel like he's going to make history with this," Ehrenreich said. "His speech on Election Night was so great, who knows what he'll do next."
Ehrenreich is one of several university students traveling to the nation's capital next week for the inaugural events, including the swearing-in of university alumnus Joe Biden as vice president and the inaugural parade featuring the University of Delaware Marching Band. The students will join record crowds that Washington, D.C. officials estimate could top 2 million people.
Although officials warn of gridlock in the city, junior Andrew Lease is not deterred.
"The amount of people there will just make it more fun because it just proves how important it was to everyone," said Lease, who is staying with family outside of Washington, D.C. and taking a morning train into the city.
On Monday afternoon, approximately 275 members of the university's marching band will board charter buses to venture south to Fairfax, Va., sleep on the gym floor of a local high school, wake up at 3:30 a.m. and make the trek into Washington, D.C., to perform in the inauguration parade.
After sending in an application with an audio sample and a performance video, the band received word late last year that it would be included in the entertainment at the inauguration festivities. It joins dozens of bands from around the country, including three others from Delaware - from Delaware State University, A.I. DuPont High School in Wilmington and the Delaware Volunteer Firemen's Association.
James P. Ancona, music professor and assistant director of the university band, said being chosen to take part in this historical event is a matter of great distinction.
"It's a tremendous honor for us to be invited because so many groups apply and the fact that there's so much history involved, history in the making involved with this election," Ancona said. "All the students are so excited to be a part of it and to just be in the center of it. It's going to be amazing."
Sophomore Ashley Santana, a member of the band, echoed this sentiment and said she is thrilled to be a part of the momentous occasion.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Santana said. "It's the inauguration of the first black president, and we get to go."
The connections to the university were not lost on Ehrenreich, who said the inauguration is more special to her because she will share Biden's alma mater.
"I've been recognized around campus a couple times as the obnoxious Joe Biden girl because when Biden came to the school, I stood outside Trabant for a couple days and yelled at people to come see Joe Biden," she said. "I'm absolutely in love with him, and everybody knows it."
Ehrenreich said she sees the inauguration less as the fruit of her volunteering efforts and more of the beginning of something the Obama administration owes those who worked hard to get him elected.
"Election Day and the days following it were the exciting days for us, the volunteers," she said. "Now after all that, we're saying, 'OK, what are you going to do? Are you going to prove us right? We worked so hard for you.' We want to be there when he gets into action."
For others, like sophomore Andrew Grunwald, vice president of College Democrats, the inauguration is a chance to witness history.
"I just want to be there at that moment and experience it," said Grunwald, who plans to take the Metro into Washington from his home 35 minutes away in Silver Spring, Md.
Many of the students headed to Washington are doing so with few definite plans, as transportation to and around the city is expected to be difficult, and hotel rooms as far away as Newark began filling up months ago.
"We're just kind of playing it by ear," said Ehrenreich, who is planning to drive to Washington, D.C. with a friend on Monday and stay with a friend of a friend.
However, one of the luckier students is freshman Christina Hoffman, who is leaving Saturday for a four-day stay in Washington, D.C. as part of the University Presidential Inauguration Conference, a program that brings together students from all around the country, and even some international students, to attend the inauguration and hear from politicians and other dignitaries. Hoffman will also get to attend an inaugural ball.
"I can't wait to see a lot of the politicians and definitely want to see Obama, hopefully, and also to just meet new people because a lot of the people there have the same interests," Hoffman said.
She and a friend were invited to attend the conference because they attended a similar conference while in high school. She said she raised much of the $2,700 program cost by holding fundraisers in her hometown of Pennsville, N.J.
Even students not able to make it to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday will have several opportunities to participate in the festivities. The university's student centers are planning a watching party at Trabant University Center multipurpose rooms from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The event is open to the university community and will feature several television monitors showing inauguration coverage, as well as refreshments and give-a-ways.
On Saturday, the university will provided two buses to transport students to see a brief ceremony at the Wilmington Train Station featuring Obama and Biden, as part of the incoming president's Whistle Stop Tour, which also includes stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore.
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