Essay Promotion Will Reward Obama Fans with Inaugural Tickets
They don’t have to summon up the “Audacity of Hope” in 25 words or less, but Americans are being given the chance to win an essay contest and score one of 10 pairs of tickets to the hottest show in Washington D.C. this month: the inauguration on Jan. 20 of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States.
The contest, announced by the Presidential Inaugural Committee in November but fleshed out with details at the holidays, offers 10 winners and 10 guests the chance to win airfare to Washington, a two-night stay in an unspecified area hotel, and admission to the official swearing-in ceremony, the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, and one of the evening’s multiple official parties.
All entrants have to do is the go to the Presidential Inaugural Committee Web site enter an e-mail address and write a short essay or statement about what Obama’s inauguration means to them.
Essays must be submitted by midnight Jan. 8. The 10 winners will be chosen by the PIC staff and notified. Entrants can also mail in their submissions.
The contest is linked to an effort to tap into the same grass-roots funding resources that were a tremendous help to Obama during the primaries and the general election. Both at the Web site and in e-mail to supporter lists, Obama fans are being asked to make a donation of $5 or more toward the inaugural expenses at the same time that they send in their contest essays to win a “Ticket to History.”
“Unlike past inaugurations, this one will not be paid for by Washington lobbyists or corporations,” reads an e-mail sent from David Plouffe, campaign manager of Obama for America. “This Inauguration will be open to as many Americans as possible. We’ll all come together to celebrate the hope and optimism that define this movement for change.”
Donors are required to certify that their contributions are not coming from someone else. They must also submit the inaugural essay to qualify for the tickets.
The 10 pairs of contest winners will be among the 240,000 people seated at the swearing-in ceremony on the Capitol Building’s west side. Another million or so are expected to watch Obama take the oath of office from the National Mall across the street.
The committee has not provided specifics about the accommodations to be provided for the contest winners, but they might well be out of town. The Obama inauguration has reportedly led to capacity bookings in hotels as far from the D.C. epicenter as Philadelphia, 140 miles away, and Williamsburg VA—150 miles distant.
