KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) - Fourth-grader Fallon Heaslip eagerly gathered with the crowd of other students and staff members outside of Sycamore Elementary School on that sunny Tuesday afternoon.
A few feet away, Malik Harris, also a fourth-grader, was staring at the road in anticipation, waiting for the chance encounter that even now - more than a decade later - he still remembers with vivid detail.
After all, not everyone gets to meet the president of the United States in their lifetimes.
But with the recent inauguration of President Joe Biden, Heaslip and Harris have now officially met two.
It was Nov. 23, 2010.
President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden were touring Kokomo and visiting facilities like Chrysler and other businesses downtown.
That morning, the presidential motorcade had passed by Sycamore Elementary and slowed down long enough for students to wave at the passing vehicles and limousines.
Heaslip, now 20 and a sophomore studying acting and costume design at Cal State-Fullerton, remembered the morning presidential motorcade drive-by during a telephone interview with the Kokomo Tribune.
“We saw three black limousines drive by the school and then hordes of children running from the building,” Heaslip said. “They went by so fast that we thought, ’No way, that’s the president. No way. And I remember thinking, ‘I wish they would have stopped.’ … And I remember being bummed a little bit, but I thought that maybe they were just too busy to stop.”
Harris - who now studies journalism at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis - recalled a similar scene.
“Everyone at the school thought there’d be a possibility that they (Obama and Biden) would come, but nobody thought they’d get out and shake hands with the kids or talk to the kids,” he said. “So I remember everyone making signs just in case, and we went outside and held our signs in the air. … I think they might have honked their horns or something. And that was all.”
But that wasn’t all, Kristen Bilkey, now superintendent of Northwestern School Corp. but Sycamore Elementary assistant principal at the time, explained.
“I had a little inside information (through an Indiana State Police contact) as far as a timeframe of when the motorcade would actually pass by Sycamore,” Bilkey said. “So we had a few students outside for that. … They waved, and honestly we thought that was going to be it. … We were all so happy, and then we went back inside the school.
“I then got a call because President Obama had seen the kids and the school, and he told his Secret Service agents that he wanted to stop on the way back,” she added. “So the Secret Service told the state police, who called me directly. … He (the ISP contact) told me they’ll be there in five minutes and to get as many kids outside as possible. So I literally ran around the school from room to room and said, ‘We need to get outside now.’”
Nearly five minutes later on the dot, the motorcade was parked outside Sycamore Elementary, Bilkey remembered.
That’s when Biden and Obama both exited their limousines, walked over to the students and began to shake their hands one at a time.
“To see that they were real and weren’t just figments of my imagination,” Heaslip said, “but that it was actually the president and the vice president. I got through the crowd and eventually got up to Biden first. And I don’t think I said anything to him, but I just touched his hand. And he just gave me this handshake with my little fourth-grade hand. And I just remember thinking, ‘This isn’t really happening right now.’
“After all, I was just this little kid, and I had never even met a celebrity before,” Heaslip added, recalling how Obama also hugged her as he made his way down the line of students. “… I obviously didn’t have any political affiliation when I was that young, and I didn’t know anything about them other than that I knew they were nice and that they were the president and vice president of the United States.”
Harris agreed, noting that something as simple as shaking hands and being in the presence of the most powerful people in the country at that time was such a significant moment for him.
“Who would have thought all these years later …” he said before trailing off. “It was just such an honor because we didn’t think they were actually going to get out and come up to us kids. They had the most important duties in the world, and they took time for a bunch of kids? … I definitely love that they did that.”
Scott Quinn is currently a fifth-grade teacher at Sycamore Elementary, and he taught fourth grade when Obama and Biden came to visit in 2010.
For him, the pomp and circumstance that accompanied the visit was fascinating, but the day itself was more student-focused, as it should be, he acknowledged.
“It was an amazing day and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the kids,” he said. “But I’ve yet to shake the hand of a president, even though I was just three feet away. The one regret I have is that I would have loved to shake their hands, but if I did that, I felt like I would’ve taken the opportunity away from one of the kids. … And honestly, it really was for the kids more than anything, and I’m glad they had that opportunity.
“I don’t think you can have a more significant honor bestowed upon you,” Quinn added. “That’s about as good as it gets. You had literally the most powerful men in the world choose your place to swing by, care enough to get out of the car and spend time making that connection. … It was monumental.”
That visit also turned out to be the ultimate learning experience, Bilkey pointed out.
“I really do believe that it expanded the students’ visions, their thoughts and their capacity for what they could do with their own lives,” she said. “’What goals can I set for myself?’ ‘Maybe I can be president.’”
“It was just so inspirational to our students. When we went inside, they couldn’t stop talking about it. You could just feel the excitement in the building. And they were just so proud that the president and vice president decided to stop there and take even just a few minutes to meet them.”
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Source: Kokomo Tribune
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