“It was a once-in-a-lifetime historical event that will never be replayed,” 
Virgin Islander Akeem Howell said of United States President Barack Obama’s Monday inauguration.
Mr. Howell was one of at least three H. Lavity Stoutt Community College graduates to attend the ceremony in Washington DC.
During the pre-inaugural activities in the morning, he performed with the Lee University Festival Choir alongside fellow HLSCC alumnus Andrea France and about 200 other classmates who were selected from the Tennessee university’s seven chorale groups.
“It was fulfilling and exciting,” Ms. France said of the performance. “Not every day you get to sing at the president’s inauguration, especially coming from the Caribbean.”
The event, which was attended by some one million people, was the first time both Virgin Islanders were part of such a large crowd, they said.
“You have to have been there to grasp the event in its entirety,” Mr. Howell said. “I don’t think any media or TV would have caught it.”
See the Jan. 24, 2013 edition for full coverage.
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