Whitt Shares Memories as Senate Page w/Noon Rotary

(FROM LEFT, TRAVIS WHITT AND ROTARY WEEKLY PROGRAM CHAIRMAN ROBIN BROWN)

Altamont Community High School junior Travis Whitt had the surprise of his young life when he was asked to serve as a US Senate page in Washington, DC during the first semester of the school year.

Whitt, the son of Alan and Karen Whitt of Altamont, had applied for the position, but got notified he'd been chosen for the fall semester just two weeks before he was due to report to Washington. He said he arrived home and his dad and mom and sister were all waiting for him. He wondered what was going on and then his mom let him know that US Senator Dick Durbin's office had phoned. When he responded, he was asked whether he really wanted the position. He answered that he did and that's when he got word of his impending departure for the nation's capital.

The schedule was demanding. Whitt and other pages...30 young people in all...rose each weekday at 5am and started their schooling at 6:15am. They reported for duty at either 10am or one hour ahead of the scheduled start of Senate business, whichever was earlier. Lights out each weeknight was 11pm.

Duties of a page vary, but they include holding doors, fetching water, securing easels for presentations and finding podiums when a Senator wanted to speak. Delivering messages throughout the vast Capitol complex was also a part of his duties. In the meantime, pages have to maintain at least a "C" in every subject to stay in the program.

Whitt lived with pages from Nashville, Tennessee and from North Carolina. The pages live in Daniel Webster Residence Hall during their time in Washington.

Of his opportunity, Whitt said, "It was pretty humbling...it was an amazing job."

The Whitt family has other ties to Rotary; Travis' older sister, Jennifer, was a Rotary Student Exchange student to France while in high school, and the Whitts have served as a Rotary host family for incoming students.

Robin Brown served as Rotary weekly program chairman.