By Sean Mussenden
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON-Taneshia Reeves strolled into a Capitol Hill office building Friday to pick up a pair of Washington's hottest tickets.
While other winners of coveted passes to President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in Tuesday face a dilemma on which lucky friend or family member to take, Reeves solved the problem by deciding to give away both tickets.
She's planning to let her mom and aunt take the passes while she and friends watch on giant video screens from a remote spot on the National Mall.
"Although it means a lot to me, I know it means more to them. They've been through so much more; they've seen so much more," Reeves, a government contractor from Arlington, Va., said after picking up the tickets from the office of Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.
Webb's office received more than 40,000 requests for the 393 tickets each Senate office was awarded, and phone calls asking for tickets were still pouring in Friday. The office gave some to state and local elected officials and the rest to Virginia residents who put in early requests.
Nathaniel Johnson, a federal health project officer from Alexandria, Va., e-mailed Webb's office in June, long before it was clear Obama would become president, though he held little hope he'd get tickets.
"I was in awe...I was dumbfounded," when the call came from Webb's office that he'd won a pair of the free passes.
"I called my mom and texted all my friends," he said, adding that he plans to bring a friend because his mom was unable to make the trip from Toledo, Ohio.
An estimated 240,000 tickets were awarded to Obama's ceremony. About half will be distributed through congressional offices that received thousands more requests than they could fill.
While Webb's office adopted a first-come, first-served policy, congressional offices sorted through thousands of requests in different ways. Some asked ticket requesters to write essays.
And some, like Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., held a lottery after receiving approximately 2,000 requests for tickets.
Lorette Batiste, who retired from the Army and lived in Raleigh before moving to Georgia late last year, solved the "who to take" problem by asking for only one ticket.
"I figured if I just took myself, I wouldn't have to be the bad person and have someone say 'I can't believe you didn't take me,'" she said after picking up her ticket from Hagan's office.
Batiste volunteered for the Obama campaign in North Carolina and 14 other states. She watched him accept the Democratic nomination in person in Denver in August, and she desperately wants to see him take the oath of office.
She desperately wanted to see him accept the Democratic nomination in person - and she did in Denver. Now she wants to see him take the oath of office.
"I needed those two things in my life, and that would make it all worthwhile," she said of the campaign work.
Gerrard Smith, a mental health worker from Durham, N.C., picked up his two tickets from Hagan's office and said he faces a "quandary." He has two sons - ages 15 and 16 - and wasn't sure which to let use the second ticket.
"I want to bring them both, so I'm kind of caught in a quandary," he said. "I'm trying to figure out a process of elimination."
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668
While other winners of coveted passes to President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in Tuesday face a dilemma on which lucky friend or family member to take, Reeves solved the problem by deciding to give away both tickets.
She's planning to let her mom and aunt take the passes while she and friends watch on giant video screens from a remote spot on the National Mall.
"Although it means a lot to me, I know it means more to them. They've been through so much more; they've seen so much more," Reeves, a government contractor from Arlington, Va., said after picking up the tickets from the office of Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.
Webb's office received more than 40,000 requests for the 393 tickets each Senate office was awarded, and phone calls asking for tickets were still pouring in Friday. The office gave some to state and local elected officials and the rest to Virginia residents who put in early requests.
Nathaniel Johnson, a federal health project officer from Alexandria, Va., e-mailed Webb's office in June, long before it was clear Obama would become president, though he held little hope he'd get tickets.
"I was in awe...I was dumbfounded," when the call came from Webb's office that he'd won a pair of the free passes.
"I called my mom and texted all my friends," he said, adding that he plans to bring a friend because his mom was unable to make the trip from Toledo, Ohio.
An estimated 240,000 tickets were awarded to Obama's ceremony. About half will be distributed through congressional offices that received thousands more requests than they could fill.
While Webb's office adopted a first-come, first-served policy, congressional offices sorted through thousands of requests in different ways. Some asked ticket requesters to write essays.
And some, like Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., held a lottery after receiving approximately 2,000 requests for tickets.
Lorette Batiste, who retired from the Army and lived in Raleigh before moving to Georgia late last year, solved the "who to take" problem by asking for only one ticket.
"I figured if I just took myself, I wouldn't have to be the bad person and have someone say 'I can't believe you didn't take me,'" she said after picking up her ticket from Hagan's office.
Batiste volunteered for the Obama campaign in North Carolina and 14 other states. She watched him accept the Democratic nomination in person in Denver in August, and she desperately wants to see him take the oath of office.
She desperately wanted to see him accept the Democratic nomination in person - and she did in Denver. Now she wants to see him take the oath of office.
"I needed those two things in my life, and that would make it all worthwhile," she said of the campaign work.
Gerrard Smith, a mental health worker from Durham, N.C., picked up his two tickets from Hagan's office and said he faces a "quandary." He has two sons - ages 15 and 16 - and wasn't sure which to let use the second ticket.
"I want to bring them both, so I'm kind of caught in a quandary," he said. "I'm trying to figure out a process of elimination."
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668