Altona Students Recount Exclusive White House Tour - June 2011

BY KAREY ROBINSON

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Linda Goertz uses a transparency on her classroom’s overhead projector to schedule upcoming public appearances of the 50 eighth grade students who received a special tour of the White House, which included a personal meeting with President Obama.Eighth graders Kaitlyn Hickman, Mallory Curtis, Paige Hillen and Laila McCaffrey were part of a group of Altona Middle School students who had an exclusive hands-on tour of the White House which included a visit with President Obama.

“When I got home from the trip I told my mom that my ‘15 minutes of fame’ had been completely and utterly used up,” said Bailee Cruger of the national media attention focused on their visit to the White House. “Then the local media wanted to talk to us. I don’t know where those additional 15 minutes came from.”

Students in Goertz’ World Strides class have spent the entire year getting ready for the annual trek to the nation’s capital and New York City. Each student was required to prepare an in-depth presentation on a site they would visit, and to take notes on each student’s project.

Students “become an expert on one site, but knowledgeable on all of the others,” said Goertz. The students voted on which presentation was the best, and the four winners received the honor of placing a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“The [World Strides] class was beneficial, because it would have been pointless to spend all of that money to go look at a bunch of monuments we didn’t know anything about,” said Ksenia Serdyukov.

The entire trip seemed like it might be a waste, however, with the threat of a potential government shutdown a few days before the scheduled departure. Schalini Schane, the mother of one of the students who was going on the trip, wrote a letter to President Obama that drew national media attention when the president read from her letter in a nationally publicized news conference.

Goertz received a call from a White House aide shortly before the trip, inviting the students for an exclusive tour of the White House. While touring Washington, D.C., the students were told that they would also meet the president.

“When we found out at lunch an hour before, we were yelling and screaming for joy,” said Rachel Cass.

After passing through two security checkpoints and having their electronic devices scanned, the students received an exclusive, hands-on tour of the White House, and their impressions of the national monument were varied.

“It was smaller than I thought,” said Cruger. “It seemed small for a building with so much historical significance.”

“I felt almost wrong touching things,” said Kaari von Bernuth after the students were told they could touch anything they liked, including the fabric tapestries on the wall and the “gigantic” piano in the State Room.

“I wouldn’t want to live there,” said Cruger. “Everything had some type of historical significance. If I broke a glass at home that would be one thing, but if I broke a glass there I might insult some other country.”

They were enthusiastic about the unique and exclusive glimpses they received of life in the White House. “When we went into the library they told us about a secret passageway behind a painting,” said Cass.

“We got to see Michelle Obama’s garden, where she grows seasonal plants that are used for cooking in the White House,” said von Bernuth. “And we got to see a beehive Mrs. Obama put in where they get honey to make granola bars with.”

“I ate one of their flowers,” reported Andrew Black.

“They were anise leaves,” corrected Goertz.

“Yeah, and I found a big camera in a birdhouse in the first lady’s garden. That was cool,” said Black.

“And we saw their compost, which is just as disgusting as ours,” said von Bernuth.

The students were positioned on risers for their meeting with the president on the South Portico of the White House. “They had us take our jackets and name tags off so we would look decent for the president,” said Cass.

The president greeted the students and fielded questions from them. “I was impressed with how often he made eye contact,” said Goertz. “He was very personable.”

“He had a strong, powerful presence,” said Sierra Juvonen.

The students were very aware of the constant presence of Secret Service agents.  Many of them, including a few positioned on the roof of the White House, carried large guns and cameras. “They put their hands on their ears to hear what was going on, just like in the movies,” said Kenneth Olson.

Other aspects of the trip made an impression on the students, especially a visit to Arlington Cemetery and the different war memorials. “I was glad I had some veterans come and talk to the students before the trip,” said Goertz. “They made an impression, and helped the students connect to real humans and to the columns at the memorials.”

“You get more patriotic after meeting the veterans. These weren’t just numbers. They were real people,” said Bruner.
Black would like to move to Washington D.C. someday. “There are endless possibilities there,” he said.

Cruger, on the other hand, said she did not want to move there. “I spent so much time crying, seeing the memorials, I could never live there,” she said.

Other highlights of the trip for the students included seeing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attending The Lion King on Broadway, seeing Trinity Church where they filmed the movie National Treasure, running into movie star Ashley Tisdale and of course, subway surfing.

They are eighth graders, after all.