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Contest offers free trips to Obama inauguration |
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By: Agencies |
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Date:
2008-12-31 |
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Place: WASHINGTON |
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Ten people will be rubbing shoulders with dignitaries and stars at US president-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in on January 20 if they win a contest launched yesterday by the presidential inaugural committee.
"You and a guest could be flown to Washington DC, put up in a hotel and be part of this once-in-a-lifetime event," in exchange for submitting an essay about the meaning to them of the inauguration, an announcement on the inaugural committee's website says.
Contestants have to be US citizens or permanent residents aged 18 or older, and the essays have to be submitted electronically by January 8 on the website of the inaugural committee -- www.pic2009.org/tickettohistory.
The lucky contest winners will be part of an elite 2,40,000 guests with coveted tickets for seats for the swearing-in ceremony that will take place on the west-facing side of the Capitol.
Entrants to the essay contest are asked to make a donation to the inaugural fund, even if doing so will not affect their chances of winning, according to the small print at the bottom of the website.
The inauguration organizing committee says Obama's swearing-in ceremony and the balls and other events that will take place around it will be funded by individuals, not by lobbyists, corporations, political action committees or labor unions, as has been the case for past inaugurations. That, they say, is a first, as is the unprecedented transparency of listing all donations in excess of $200 on the official inauguration website.
Individual donations have been capped at $50,000 and bundled donations -- where one donor gathers contributions from many individuals in a corporation or community -- at $300,000.
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