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thedrifter
12-19-08, 06:45 AM
St. Louis high school students poised to be part of history
By Steve Giegerich
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Dec. 19 2008

St. Louis — It was a couple of days after the election that Dorothy McHellen,
euphoric over the outcome, first broached the idea of the Marine Corps Junior
ROTC Color Guard and Drill Team at Roosevelt High School marching in President
Barack Obama's inaugural parade.

"It's my wife, so, of course, I took her advice," cracked Master Sgt. Isiah
McHellen, the unit's commandant.

The McHellens decided almost on the spot to submit an application on the
Inaugural Committee's website. Rather than raise unreasonable expectations,
they just as quickly decided to tell only the Roosevelt administration.

Not that the McHellens had any expectations themselves.

"We both thought there's no way it was going to happen, but you never know
until you try," said Dorothy.

On the afternoon of Dec. 5, a caller identifying herself as U.S. Sen. Claire
McCaskill contacted Isiah McHellen.

The Roosevelt contingent, she announced, had made the cut.

It took about 30 seconds for McHellen to realize that the caller was in fact
McCaskill and that his students were indeed destined to step out on
Pennsylvania Avenue on Jan. 20.

It took another couple of days for McHellen to further realize that he had no
idea of how the 23 members of the Roosevelt Marine JROTC Color Guard and Drill
Team would get to Washington, where they would stay once they arrived there or
where the money was going to come from to finance such an endeavor.

On Thursday, after two weeks of uncertainty, the master sergeant got his answer:

The Marines Corps, according to district officials, has agreed to pick up the
entire $18,000 tab.

Senior Knedra Woodfork, who knew nothing about the plan hatched by the
McHellens until word arrived from the inaugural committee, is still pinching
herself.

Of the 1,400 high school marching units from across the country vying for a
spot in the parade, hers was one of about 40 high school groups nationwide to
get the invitation (the Blue Springs High School Golden Regiment Marching Band,
from the Kansas City area, will be the only other Missouri representative).

"How big is it for us not only to go out of St. Louis, but to go halfway across
the country," she said. "I'm going to be able to tell my kids that not only was
I there when the first black president was elected, but I was in his parade. I
helped make history."

Since accepting McCaskill's congratulations, McHellen has seen the magnitude of
what is about to occur resonate beyond the Roosevelt campus.

He predicted it will only get better.

"Other people connected to the school are going to say my daughter, my son, my
grandson was there. The magnitude of it all started to hit me when I started
thinking about all the people this is going to affect," he said.

While Woodfork has been on brief trips to Chicago and Arkansas, many of the
students, McHellen said, have never ventured outside Missouri.

In a school with "real social issues" where students face a wide array of
"challenges every day," McHellen said, the trip to Washington reinforces a
recurring message from Roosevelt's faculty and administration about hard work
and education is its own reward.

"When we were selected to be part of this process it showed them that, yes,
there are no limits," he said.

Woodfork, however, expects she may have one regret about her turn before the
reviewing stand standing before 1600 Pennsylvania.

The concentration required of the unit's precision routine will probably
prevent the corps from stealing so much as a glimpse of the man they've come to
honor.

"I can't believe we'll actually get that close to (Obama)," she said. "But I'm
not going to look. I'm going to want to look. But I'm not going to. Because we
have to keep our heads straight."

For the next month or so, though, the unit's primary concern is keeping their
heads from exploding at the thought of what lies ahead.

The prospect of Jan. 20, said junior Lachana Jackson, has pretty much relegated
the coming holiday to secondary status.

"Christmas comes every year," she explained. But this is big. This is the first
African-American ever sworn in as president. This will never happen again."

sgiegerich@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8172

Ellie