Lucky students win ticket to history

Middle school kids can make some noise.

For an hour yesterday at Richmond's Binford Middle School, the rumble that comes as 450 or so students stomp their feet and slap their hands was encouraged. Principal Peter Glessman was egging them on.

It made for a dramatic buildup as he read the names of 10 students chosen to attend next week's inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

He, the students and teacher Frederica RicksWinston will have places along the parade route, thanks to first lady Anne Holton. The group will leave Richmond about 4 a.m. Tuesday, ride a bus to Fredericksburg, take a train into Washington and then walk to their places.

Then they'll reverse the process later in the day, with a goal -- very fluid, Glessman said -- of being home before 7 p.m. "We're going to try to see as much as we can," Glessman said. "As a former social studies teacher, right now I'm on cloud nine."

He wasn't the only one at Binford with his head in the clouds.

Seventh-grader Myracle Cash, easily the most demonstrative of the 10 winners, couldn't stop moving after hearing her name called. She jumped up and down, hugged everyone in sight, slid side to side and generally burned a seemingly endless supply of energy.

"Oh my goodness," she said about 45 minutes after taking her place on stage. "I was like, this is not happening. I'm not going to sleep [until after the inauguration]."

Kia Jordan, an eighth-grader, was a bit more sedate than Myracle but just as excited.

"My stomach just dropped," she said of hearing her name called. "I was shocked."

Fellow eighth-grader Larry Walker said he was thrilled that he's getting a third school-sponsored trip to Washington in the past year.

"I think this is going to be real exciting," he said. "I'm at a loss for words."

Sixth-grader Brianna Eaddy said she couldn't believe it when she heard her name. She then rattled off a lengthy list of who she was going to tell first, including a brother, a sister, her mother and two aunts, among others.

Those four will join sixth-graders Shade Akindele and Aliyah Craddock, seventh-graders Terrill Winston and James Huddleston; and eighth-graders Chrystopher Briggs and Andrew Clarke on the daylong trip.

Glessman said he was going to spend the next few days working out of the logistics of the trip but that he had no worries.

"This is an absolutely perfect group," he said of the students.

While they were chosen at random, Glessman said he did leave himself some wiggle room before opening the trip to the student body.

"We did have some provisions for behavior," he said.

Not that the students will have much room to misbehave, anyway. A crowd of millions should keep them packed pretty tight.

"It's going to be cold and there are going to be a lot of people," Myracle said. "But I'm ready."

So is Glessman.

"The opportunity to be part of this in person is unbelievable," he said.

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or .