Florida Catholic | Local Third-Graders Hit Presidential Campaign Trail

Local third-graders hit presidential campaign trail

LINDA REEVES | FLORIDA CATHOLIC PALM BEACH BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 03.21.08

Students of St. Juliana School participate in a field trip to meet Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.
Courtesy Photo

WEST PALM BEACH | More than 30 third-graders from St. Juliana School attending a meet-and-greet function came away with lasting impressions of the presidential hopeful they met there.

“I think he is a great man,” student John Garman said about U.S. Sen. John McCain, whom he met at a March 6 campaign event at a restaurant near the school here. McCain is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president. In the November election, he will face either U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton or U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, depending on the outcome of a race still too close to call for the Democratic nomination.

“He was a prisoner (of war) for five years and then, let go,” the youngster said about McCain, who was held in Vietnam and released following the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.

The candidate stopped at Howley’s restaurant while visiting Palm Beach County this month. He was accompanied by Florida’s Republican governor, Charlie Crist.

“Our students were the only youngsters invited,” said Susan Demes, St. Juliana assistant principal. “They wrote to Gov. Crist and (County) Commissioner Bob Kanjian delivered the letters to him.”

The students were invited along with about 200 other locals plus area media. Newspaper and television crews and guests crowded the small restaurant.

The children filled gift baskets with green St. Juliana T-shirts, a gym bag, water bottle and greeting notes and presented them to the governor and the candidate.

“The children were excited,” said teacher Amy Chessler. “They learned information on them (the two men). We are studying about city and state government.”

The children got a sample of what a media gathering and political events are all about and were briefed by security in advance of the celebrity politicians’ arrival.

“I thought the governor was nice,” said Davis Kiernan, who did not care much for the media and camera crews surrounding Crist because they blocked the boy’s view at times.

Kerri Zloch enjoyed every moment. “I am glad we got to go. It was a field trip. We got to be on television,” she said.

Serena Brasco, principal, was also happy that she was able to attend with her students.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” she said. “It was a lifetime event, and I am so happy for them.”

When a Florida Catholic reporter asked the children who had aims at being the president one day, nearly every student raised a hand.

Davis kept his hands at his sides.

“I don’t like the cameras,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be a president.”

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