Friday, Aug. 5, 2005

What do you think of this story? Click here to send a message to the editor.

McIntosh student completes term as U.S. Capitol page

By MICHAEL J. THOMPSON
mthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

When McIntosh senior Christopher Rice is asked the first day of school what he did for his summer break, he will have a unique answer. “I was on C-SPAN,” he will be able to reply.

Rice spent July 11-29 in Washington, D.C., as part of the U.S. House page program with U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland.

"Working in the U.S. House page program is a great honor for the students chosen," Westmoreland said. "Christopher's done a great job here, he's gotten to watch the Congress work first-hand and he's had an experience that he'll remember for a lifetime.”

After reading a newspaper article about a local student who had been involved with the page program, Rice called Westmoreland’s office for the forms he had to fill out and submitted them.

“I had never actually thought of doing this program ... I had never even heard of it, but I thought it would be fun to do,” Rice said, who earlier in the summer spent a week at West Point’s prestigious summer leadership program.

“I got a call back from Rep. Westmoreland, and he told me I had been selected,” Rice said.

“The competition for these page slots is really tough. It's really the best and brightest from around the country ... I'm proud for Christopher that he was able to spend this time here working in our nation's Capitol,” said Westmoreland.

Upon arriving in D.C., Rice began his 9:30 a.m.-to-5:30 p.m. job by running around office buildings of the House and delivering letters to various people, taking letters to send back home to constituents and delivering notes to the reporting clerk of the House floor.

Rice was able to meet former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde and a host of other political celebrities.

He stayed in the page dorm, which is roughly two blocks from the House office buildings.

“Really it was great to see how the process works, since only pages and Congressmen/women are allowed on the House floor,” Rice said.

Being a page and working on the House floor meant he was able to make a periodic appearance on C-SPAN.

His mother, Suzanne, said, “he was supposed to be able to call home when he was going to be in the House chamber, but I normally watch C-SPAN and the day he was in the building I taped it.”

I watched all day, and didn’t see him, but it turned out he was I just mistook him for a Congressmen,” she said with a laugh.

Rice plans on running cross country this year and is the Vice President of the Young Republicans at McIntosh. He recently earned Eagle Scout.

“He had a great time and I’m glad he finally got to see the reality of Washington D.C. since he has always loved history,” said his mother.