Singing for President Bush

From the August 17, 2004 SING List, reported by Teresa McCafferty

"Let's say it was an interesting, exciting and funny experience.

"Background: When we were originally contacted about singing for President Bush, the initial plan was for us to sing the song Let Freedom Ring for the President at dinner. The plan evolved into us singing for about 1/2 hour at the reception before dinner and then the song after the start of dinner.

"Reality: We ended up doing about 1.5 hours (off and on) at the reception and not singing at the dinner at all! President Bush did not arrive until after the original planned start time of dinner and once he was on "the grounds," the Secret Service took complete control and determined the schedule from then on! The head Secret Service guy wouldn't even allow the woman who organized the event into the tent where dinner was served once the President was in there and they completely changed her schedule! She was no longer in control.

"We arrived at the Holding/Security area about an hour ahead of our scheduled singing time. On Thursday, we were told when we got there on Friday, we were to skip the registration desk and go directly to security and tell them we were the entertainment. However, when we arrived at security, they told us we needed name tags from registration to proceed through security. So off to registration ... where nametags did not exist for us, since we were the entertainment. Several people apparently made several phone calls and after 20 or so minutes and confiscation of our water bottles, we were allowed to proceed through the security checkpoint and medal detector. BOTH Judy and Anna set off the medal detector. Believe it or not, Judy's barrette set it off. When they got to Anna, the guard was a little surprised when her chest beeped - pitch pipe!!! She had to reach into her bra and pull it out and give it a little toot to show them what it was.

"We were escorted from the Security Checkpoint to the reception area. Along the way, our escort warned us that if the trees were moving, not to be alarmed, that there were snipers in the trees and men in the bushes. Sure enough, if you looked close enough, there were ropes hanging down the trunks of the trees all over the property. They took our purses for safekeeping because "If you set them down and walk away from them, you might find them surrounded by security!".

"We were set up on the lawn, next to two different reception areas, where both groups could hear us. Very odd being background music! It was a nice rehearsal though :)

"We were in a prime location to see the motorcade when it arrived - soooo many vehicles!! As one passed, the person in the back seat waved at us. We jokingly said "Hey, the Prez is waving at us!" We were allowed to take a camera in with us, so we took pictures of the area and of the motorcade.

"Every once in a while, during our singing, the bushes behind us would rustle and we'd turn to see men moving along the property lines in the middle of all the tree trunks and plants. I, for one, have never seen so much security in my life!

"We continued to sing for people as they lined up to go into the house to get their photographs taken with President Bush. We got into the end of the line with one of the organizers and a local congresswoman. Until we actually walked into the room where the photos were being taken, we weren't entirely sure they were going to let us get one done.

"We walked into the room and the President turned to us and said something like "Oh, it's the singers. Did you see me wave to you from my car?" He shook each of our hands and thanked us for sharing our beautiful voices. (He apparently heard us through the open windows.) He wrapped his arms around us and our photo was taken. Later, we all came to the realization the he was most likely walking around with the glitter from our jackets all over his suit.

"From there, we went down to the dinner tent, because it wasn't yet definite whether or not we would be able to sing Let Freedom Ring. President Bush was walking just a few feet behind us so I attempted to take a couple photos over my shoulder while I was still walking down the lawn...needless to say, they're a little blurry. I did stop and turn to take one and got yelled at by the head Secret Service guy to "Keep moving, President coming through" ... drats. THAT picture came out very clear; however, the President was reaching up and rubbing his nose, so NOT a great picture of him.

"The woman in our chorus who got us this gig doggedly pursued our singing Let Freedom Ring with the head Secret Service Agent for several minutes, but in the end we were still told it would not be possible. (We should have just sung it for him when we were getting our photo taken!) Since we weren't singing at the dinner and weren't getting fed, we decided to leave and go get some dinner ... easier said than done.

We had to stop a few times on the way out to wait for approval to actually leave! As we passed the motorcade, a head popped out of the door of a very cool looking black van that we're sure was the surveillance center. A few of the Secret Service guys let us know on our way out that they enjoyed our singing.

When we reached the original security checkpoint that we came through, the guys that were there when we came in were still there eating pizza. They asked us how it went and we told them pretty good, except for the fact that their head guy wouldn't let us sing the song we were hired to sing for the President. They asked us to sing it for them, so we did.

It's hard to sing for big, tough Secret Service and military guys when they are tearing up!!! We started out singing to about 4-5 guys and ended up with a bunch of them gathered around from their posts behind us. When we were done singing, they asked us all about the quartet and where we sing and wished us good luck in Indy. One of the women volunteers took a picture of us with the security checkpoint guys.

We proceeded to where the valet parking was, only to find NO ONE there! So we sat on the benches and were settling in to wait, when along came one of the Secret Service Agents (Mark) and he went in search of the valet guys for us!

Mark came back and started chatting with us. He asked us where he and his buddies could go out to have some fun when they were done that evening. He gave us each a business card, asked for one of ours. He told us if we're ever doing a show in DC, to look him up and he'd give us a great tour.

Our car arrived and we headed out to a local mall to eat. We were in the middle of the mall when Judy's cell phone rang. It was MARK, the Secret Service guy! He wanted to know if we would email him a copy of the picture and asked if we were going out anywhere for fun. Judy told him no, we weren't going out because we had a full day of coaching lined up the next day. They chatted for a few minutes.

We had dinner, chatted about our evening and laughed over the fact that President Bush was walking around all glittered up! So, despite the fact that we didn't get to sing our "official" song at the dinner, we had a great time and have a wonderful experience to tell our family and friends about."

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