University of Arkansas Student Invited to Meet President Obama
Posted on 4/6/2009
A University of Arkansas student and her husband received an unexpected phone call one Friday night recently, inviting them to the White House to meet President Obama.
Sarah Cater, a sophomore studying family and consumer sciences education in the College of Education and Health Professions, and her husband, Aaron, operate a small business in Farmington called Super Saver Coupons. A captain in the Army, Aaron Cater was deployed twice to Iraq, and the couple took out a loan from the Small Business Administration to keep the company going. He returned from the second deployment in December.
"We had taken the kids out for ice cream on a Friday night, March 13, and after we got home I was putting them to bed when the phone rang," Sarah recalled. "My husband was on the phone for a long time, 45 minutes, and when he came into the room where I was he was white as a ghost. He said, 'We've been invited to meet the president Monday at 11 a.m.'"
The Little Rock office of the Small Business Administration had told the White House the Caters' story when they heard the presidential administration was looking for small business owners from across the nation to come sit in on a news conference about legislation to stimulate small business growth. One of the other small business owners spoke during the news conference.
"It was a shock to us," Cater said. "My husband Googled the name of the man who called to see if this was real.
"Once we decided it was, we checked airfare and it would have cost $1,000 a ticket so we decided to pack up and drive," she said. "The White House said they couldn't offer to pay our way because then they would have to pay everyone's expenses."
Cater said her sister, who teaches school in Wichita, was on her spring break so she came to baby-sit the three Cater children.
The couple arrived in Washington on Sunday and spent the night in the famous Willard Intercontinental Washington Hotel, a historic hotel established in 1850 and frequented by many U.S. presidents. The next morning they met and shook hands with Obama before the news conference in the White House East Room. Aaron Cater gave the president a coin that represents his Army unit, Bravo Company 217th BSB.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was also in attendance. When he spoke to the audience, Geithner referred to people such as the Caters as "small business leaders."
"It felt like someone else was there, like I was floating above myself," Sarah Cater said. "We got to meet the president. It was amazing. I asked him for his autograph and he gave it to me. We were on the front row at the news conference. I was getting texts on my phone from people who could see us on TV."
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