ShawneeDispatch.com

Whitney Novak took a special interest in government at an early age.

“In elementary school I loved presidential history, and my parents always took me to presidential libraries for fun,” she said.

Now the Shawnee native has gotten an up-close-and-personal look at the inaugural process, serving as a volunteer during an event for Vice President-elect Joseph Biden’s family Sunday night, distributing tickets to the inauguration ceremony on Monday to former members of Congress, and even getting some of those prized tickets for herself.

Novak described Tuesday’s events as “very cold, but worth it” to hear President Barack Obama’s inaugural speech.

“The speech itself was so optimistic, I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you couldn’t help but look forward to the next four years at least of what might happen in this country,” she said. “It was so much positivity and optimism, you can’t help but feel patriotic and optimistic for the next however many years; everybody was energized that there was real change coming, which was just amazing.”

Novak’s interest in politics comes as no surprise considering her father, Mill Valley High School Principal Joe Novak, who took a sabbatical to work for the Freedom’s Answer organization in 2004 and recently ran for the 39th District Kansas House seat.

Novak worked with the YouthVote organization during her time at Mill Valley, where she graduated in 2003. Majoring in journalism at Kansas University, she also interned in Washington, D.C., for a semester.

After graduating from KU in May 2007, Novak got a job with the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress. The organization of 550 former congressmen and senators helps provide them with opportunities to stay involved in public service as well as organizing congressional alumni activities. Novak is the member services manager, which means she does everything from help plan golf tournaments and meetings to arranging for the inauguration tickets for more than 200 of the association’s members who don’t live in the D.C. area. She was responsible for picking up the former members’ tickets and has spent much of the last week distributing them.

On Monday, she attended a luncheon hosted by the ambassador to Afghanistan to deliver some of the last few tickets.

“I can’t tell you how many people came up to me asking me how many extras I had,” Novak said Monday. “I felt pretty powerful today.”

Novak’s distribution efforts were interrupted Sunday due to her duties as an inauguration volunteer.

Most volunteers were selected through an online application process. However, Novak was selected because a friend was heavily involved in the Barack Obama campaign and is now working on the “transition team,” organizing volunteers.

Novak said she was eating dinner with this friend and his wife one night in December when she mentioned how much she admired Jill Biden, Joseph Biden’s wife.

“So they decided it would be fun to get me in there to help with the inauguration,” Novak said.

After filling out extensive biographical information forms and a background check, Novak found out Jan. 14 that she was credentialed as a volunteer for the Biden Family’s private event Sunday at the Kennedy Center.

Novak arrived there at 4 p.m. to learn there were more volunteers than necessary, so she was directed to simply be available to direct the 500 or so guests to the appropriate areas of the party should they have any questions, all while taking in a performance by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and a speech by former President Bill Clinton.

“There weren’t that many people with questions, so I ended up just getting to sit back and enjoy the party,” Novak said. “It was just a really exciting event and got everyone energized for what’s to come in the next few days.”

The only drawback was she couldn’t see Sunday’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial, though she had friends who attended.

“They said it was incredible to see so many people joined there together for this one cause, and I was so sad I had to miss it,” Novak said.

Hopefully, Tuesday’s ceremony made up for that. Novak rose at 6 a.m. to walk the six blocks from her apartment to the Capitol, in the hopes of getting in line early and getting good seats for the swearing in ceremony.

Novak said she was excited to get to her seats, among former congress members she works for, and see that she was close enough to see the Presidential seal on the podium. Then she looked around and saw she was sitting immediately next to Tony Dungee, coach of the Colts football team, and three rows behind her was musician Jon BonJovi. Also not far away were actors Larry David and Anne Hathaway.

“There were all these celebrities all around me, but it wasn’t about them,” she said. “It was just all these Americans sitting together in one place, and didn’t matter what color your skin was or if you were famous.”

At one point she stood up on her chair and looked back at the massive crowd in the mall. Everyone had flags, and when the Obama motorcade went by, they all began waving them furiously, she said.

“Everybody was up cheering, waving their flags, and it was just this moment that you don’t see every day,” Novak said. “It was incredible.”

Novak said Obama’s swearing in and speech had a huge affect on the crowd.

“There were a lot of people around me who were just in tears, which was really touching,” she said. “There were a lot of African Americans who were just sobbing as he took the oath. After it was all over, we sang the national anthem, when we sang ‘land of the free,’ there was an older African American lady who said ‘We can finally sing that and mean it.’”

With the change in presidents comes a whole new climate in Washington; Novak said it had been interesting to see all those with the old administration moving out, making way for a flood of newcomers.

“It’s fascinating to see this city change,” Novak said. “Who knows what will happen in the next few months. Getting to be here for this weekend has been just incredible.”

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