Pomona Unified superintendent and teacher among those at today's presidential inauguration
The Pomona Unified School District will be represented at today's inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
After traveling all weekend by bus, teacher Paul Knopf doesn't have a ticket to the ceremony but will watch it from the National Mall.
Superintendent Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana used frequent-flier miles for her plane ticket and has stayed with relatives in Virginia.
They may have taken different paths to reach Washington, D.C., but both are excited about being able to attend.
"I kind of want to feel the energy of people that day and say I was a part of it in some way," Knopf said. "I always talk to my students and tell them that it's one thing to read about history and another to be close to it or live it."
With Obama's leadership and energy, the nation "can make it out of any trial before us," said Knopf, who plans to document his journey through poetry. "I think he really brings out the best in Americans."
Melendez de Santa Ana said she will take pictures on the trip and use them in a presentation that she hopes to share with students, teachers and staff members.
"It's a history-making event, and I feel very honored to be going," she said.
Melendez de Santa Ana was 10 years old when she shook Sen. Robert Kennedy's hand in 1968 when he passed through her hometown of Montebello during his California primary campaign.
Melendez de Santa Ana said attending the inauguration has "the same sense of change and being part of something."
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