Hello WA Fans,

What a great day today! The temperature was great, low 90s with humidity to match. :-) The day started with a short team meeting on the steps of our dorm followed by t-shirt and button distribution. At that point several kids scattered in all directions to begin their button trading adventure.

I made my way to the exhibit hall for the morning to serve as room monitor. This also gave me a chance to watch the exhibit set up process and encourage Team WA to get their exhibits ready for the contest. See pics below.

Our delegation then left campus and headed into DC for a day of sightseeing, and touring. Check out our Facebook page to see more pictures of the day...

The day was pretty quiet on campus until the Opening Ceremonies this evening. I was the lone representative, but thankfully my WI friends helped cheer for the WA delegation.

The group spent the evening on a monument tour highlighted with stops at the WWII, Lincoln, MLK, Vietnam, Korean, and Jefferson.

News for this year's contest is that our Closing Ceremonies will be held in the air conditioned Comcast Center. This is a first for History Day and everyone is pretty excited about the opportunity to parade through Comcast while enjoying the comfort of AC. The only drawback to this plan is that there will be a limited window for seating assignments. As might guess, everyone is wanting prime-time seating. In honor or true fairness, the national office held a drawing tonight for coordinators. Numbers were drawn and coordinators will be able to enter the center based on the number in hand.

Every 5 minutes or so another 5 coordinators will gain entry into the center to stake out their seating section. As luck would have it I was able to draw for Oregon as they will be seated in our section this year as well. With that in mind, I was able to pull 37 and 50 out of the hat! Yes folks, we are going to be 37th into the center to set up our seating. By that time most prime sections will be lost and we will end up in the nose bleed section. :-)




Ohhhh wait, there's more...

I was pleading my case to my friend in Virginia and asking him to help me out by staking out a section large enough to hold the WA/OR contingent. He smiled and asked me how many seats I needed and when I explained I was looking for about 135 seats he handed me his number and said go for it.

We are now number 7 into the building to set up seats. :-) 
THANK YOU AARON!!!

Monday is a big day of junior judging, please watch for more updates tomorrow.

Happy History Day everyone.

:-)