The Eagle's Nest

On Jan­u­ary 20, 2009, RCHS Ju­nior Char­lie Hes­ter wit­nessed Pres­i­dent Obama’s of­fi­cial In­au­gu­ra­tion. “It was so amaz­ing,” Char­lie re­marked. “The peo­ple were all so happy to be there and it was so his­toric that the at­mos­phere was in­sane!”

Nom­i­nated for The Con­gres­sional Youth Lead­er­ship Coun­cil (CYLC), Hes­ter was cho­sen to travel with this pro­gram be­cause of his out­stand­ing aca­d­e­mic achieve­ment and lead­er­ship in the com­mu­nity. RCHS is hon­ored to have a scholar par­tic­i­pate in such a re­spectable council.

“It was the most amaz­ing thing I have ever ex­pe­ri­enced. There were over 3 mil­lion peo­ple at the Na­tional mall—it took over an hour to cross a 40 yard stretch,” Char­lie says.

Along with the In­au­gu­ra­tion, the CYLC also toured area at­trac­tions. Ac­cord­ing to Hes­ter, the schol­ars “visted sev­eral mu­se­ums, at­tended con­certs, went to the Na­tion­als’ base­ball sta­dium, and went on a din­ner cruise.”

The Lead­er­ship Coun­cil held their own cel­e­bra­tion at a D.C. land­mark. “We had our own pri­vate ball at the Na­tional Air and Space Mu­seum,” Char­lie said. “Chris Daugh­tery from Amer­i­can Idol per­formed,” he added.

Pres­i­dent Obama and Chris Daugh­tery weren’t the only fa­mous peo­ple Hes­ter saw in Wash­ing­ton: “Not at the ball, but at the in­au­gural con­cert, I saw Obama’s two daugh­ters,” he said.

Char­lie re­turned to Day­ton on Jan­u­ary 21, 2009.