A little background before I get to the main part of this post...
Students for Life at SLU has started a scholarship, the
Pregnant and Parenting Assistance Scholarship, for SLU students who are, as the title states, either pregnant or parenting. As of right now, once the scholarship becomes endowed, we will be able to give one student $1000 each year. That money can be used towards tuition, books, childcare, prenatal care, etc. The more money we get, the more we can give. One way that we have been raising money to become endowed is through Run for Their Lives which is a 5k run/walk we have hosted the past two years in the spring. On October 10th we had a kick-off event for members, friends of Students for Life, and people in the community who support us.
On to my story...one of the many people we invited was one of our amazing supports/sponsors for the Run. After he received our invitation, he called Caitlin [a member in SFL] and told her about an event on Friday, October 3rd at Hunter Farms. It was a fundraiser for Kenny Hulshof who is the Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri and the keynot speaker was going to be the President...of the United States. He had purchased two tables [$10,000/table or $1,000/plate] but was only able to fill one and offered us 10 tickets for the mere price of $75/plate. I was one of the lucky 10 that was able to attend the event.
Our group
We pulled up to Hunter Farms, and let me just say, it was gorgeous! I would absolutely love to live somewhere like this! Tons of open space, trees, ponds/lakes...beautiful. After they checked us in and we went through security we mingled among the "Who's Who of St. Louis Republicans" basically [some guests included Mr. and Mrs. Schnuck's and Tim Drury...] Everyone seemed to know each other and we felt a little out of place, so we talked to each other :-) I took a few bathroom breaks, well anytime anyone had to go to the bathroom I went with them so I could rest my feet..the heels hurt so bad and it didn't help that the grass was soft and I kept sinking! The bathroom was cool though. There were pictures of both President Bush's as well as other people who had attended past events here.
After the cocktail hour, we were ushered inside the pavilion for dinner and there a little band of older men playing patriotic songs [which I loved!].
The food wasn't all that great, it would've been better had it been at least warm, but at events like these, I guess you aren't really paying for great food.
The guys in our group, Matt, Kevin and Steve
They cleared the tables and then, what we had been waiting for..."Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States." I think I got chills when the announcer said that! Everyone was standing, cheering, clapping, waving, whistling it was amazing. When he walked to the podium,he was waving at friends not at people, he casually strolled to the podium. There were no teleprompters. No press to address. No media to misconstrue. No audio or video to limit his free speech.
Some quotes from his speech...
*Someone shouted “4 more years,” upon which Bush replied with, “4 more years and I will be a single man.”
*“Living in the white house is like living in a museum…Laura is always telling me not to put my coffee on the Jefferson table. And keep your feet off of the Grant sofa.”
*To Senator Aiken, “Oh did we leave you behind on Air Force One?”
“…oops.” [I believe Senator Aiken was also in DC that morning with President Bush and Kenny Hulshof but had to take a commercial plane to St. Louis]
* “You have a PhD. That’s Condi. And then you have a C-student. That’s me. But look who is President!”
*“One risk is that you lose and make a lousy candidate…
…the other is that you win and make a lousy President.”
* He also talked about how when you become President, you put the portrait of a past President who you have been most infuenced by and he said it was a difficult choice between Abraham Lincoln and 41 [his father]. But he said that while Abraham Lincoln hangs on the wall, 41 hangs in his heart.
We got to see a very different side of President Bush, the person and not the President, that not many get to see and it was truly an honor.
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