For Big Event's Volunteers, No Job Is Too Small

washingtonpost.com ^ | Monday, January 17, 2005 | Maureen Fan

[crushelits]

Thousands Drawn to Help

Inaugural volunteers have been streaming into Washington, joining thousands of local volunteers for a momentous task that is honor, duty and job networking all rolled into one, and more of them are scheduled to arrive this week.

Florists from Hawaii, Boy Scouts from Texas, students from Wisconsin and former political candidates from Oklahoma are among the many crashing on friends' couches, sleeping in hotels at the inaugural committee's expense or footing their own bills.

Each volunteer has small tasks that might seem minor, from giving directions to a ticket holder to stripping the thorns from roses intended for a floral centerpiece. But taken together, more than 5,000 volunteers are the gears that allow the inauguration to unfold. Without them, it wouldn't be possible to stage three days of events, including a fireworks display, a military salute, the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony, nine balls and an inaugural parade with 10,000 marchers.

In charge is a 24-year-old campaign and convention veteran named Gordon Pennoyer. His desk is a bare cubicle at the front of a volunteer "war room" on the fifth floor of the Mary E. Switzer Building, three blocks from the Capitol, and headquarters for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. His main tool is his BlackBerry.