STUART — Students at Walden Academy received an early holiday surprise today when Congressman-elect Tom Rooney came bearing gifts: Tickets to January’s presidential inauguration.

“We are the luckiest people in the world,” Caroline Franklin, 13, said breathlessly.

“Yes, we are,” the school’s director, Patti Mitchell, replied.

Students at the small private school have been planning a trip to Washington for months and put in an early request for inauguration tickets, Mitchell said. They sent their request first to U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, whose seat Rooney won in November, and to U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez.

It was Rooney who came to the school today to tell students the tickets were theirs, although they will have to wait until their arrival in Washington to claim them.

“You’re going to be able to see something that very few people get to participate in,” he said. “It’s something to be celebrated.”

Mitchell said students at the school have spent a lot of time this year learning about American history. They held mock debates and a mock election — President-elect Barack Obama won the election — and discussed current events, she said.

“It’s so exciting,” she said. “The kid are just beside themselves.”

Greg King, 12, said he wanted to “see history being made at the inauguration.”

Frank Clair, 14, said students would tell their own children about the event some day.

“Just to see that is going to be so amazing,” he said. “It’s hard to even comprehend.”

Hannah Cogsil, 12, agreed: “There’s no word for it.”

Tags: inauguration, Walden Academy

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