Naperville family gets VIP treatment for Inauguration Week
How do people react when they learn the Naperville family of Kim and Benny White, with son BJ and daughter Logan, are attending an inaugural ball this January in Washington, D.C?
"They ask how they can get tickets and go with us!" says Kim. "Then they ask, 'How did you get tickets?'"
The Whites will attend the George Washington University Inaugural Ball, one of 12 on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. They've been invited to sit in the VIP section.
Kim hopes to have a Naperville sign with them.
"We want to let them know we're from his home area," Kim says.
The White family was invited in June to the ball. Benny, a 1987 West Point graduate who recently retired after 22 years in the Army, is the former ROTC commander at Wheaton College. Whenever one of Benny's cadets got married, the Whites went to the wedding, no matter where in the country it was held. They were at a cadet's wedding when they met Jill Kasle, a professor at George Washington University and an organizer for this inaugural ball, who extended the invitation.
The Whites told her immediately they would attend. Eight months before the event, Kim made hotel reservations for inauguration week.
"I like to plan early, so we're not paying those astronomical (hotel) prices," she says.
The university has an inaugural ball every four years. If invited, you commit to attending no matter who wins the election, Kim says.
So are the Whites hoping for a photo with the new president and a handshake?
"More important, I'd love for my kids to get a picture with him," she says.
Son BJ, a senior at Neuqua Valley High School, plans to study politics with an international relations major in college next year. He's applied to Harvard and Brown universities, and will include college visits to Georgetown University and The American University in Washington, D.C., during inauguration week.
Daughter Logan, a seventh-grader at Gregory Middle School, wants to be a fashion designer and is fascinated by Michelle Obama's style. When Kim and Logan shopped for a full-length ballgown for Logan to wear to the black-tie event, "of course we couldn't agree on a dress," Kim says, "so we bought two. We'll take both and decide there."
Kim likes the full-skirted princess-style dress; Logan prefers a straight, black, sparkly one.
Benny, now a consultant to the government, will wear military formalwear called dress mess. Kim is still shopping for her gown, but after 22 years attending military balls as an Army wife, she has back-up choices in her closet if she can't find anything new.
Though Kim initially supported Hillary Clinton, she came around to Obama. Benny was an Obama supporter from the beginning. The family volunteered at Obama headquarters on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, making phone calls the Sunday before the election.
"I had been there before, but I wanted to get the kids involved. I wanted them to be part of the process," Kim says.
"We were thrilled with the outcome," she says. "Words can't even begin to express how I feel. It really started to hit me on the day we went to vote."
As an Army family that moved 13 times during 22 years of marriage, Kim and Benny often had to cast absentee ballots. This time they voted at their local polling place.
"When I saw Barack Obama's name on the ballot, the tears just started. I started thinking about my kids. There's nothing that can hold them back anymore," Kim says. "I thought about my parents and grandparents, the things they went through. When it finally came down to filling out the ballot, I thought, let's give him a chance."
Besides the ball and college visits, the Whites will watch the morning parade from the condo of the George Washington University professor who invited them.
About her kids and their presence at this history-making event, "they're both very excited," Kim says.
• Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy writes about Naperville. E-mail her at otbfence@hotmail.com.