Avid Barack Obama supporters since 2004, the Leslie family was finally able to see their hard work, and the work of millions of other Americans, pay off when they attended Barack Obama's Inauguration.
A professor in the College of Journalism and Communications, Michael Leslie said his family received an official invitation to the inauguration, which he plans to frame, because of their monthly donations to Obama's campaign.
Leslie's wife Agnes, a senior lecturer and outreach director at UF's Center for African Studies, said her family first heard Obama speak in person at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
"We were taking our oldest son Daliso around to look at colleges and we heard Barack was speaking," she said.
Leslie attributes the family's involvement in Obama's campaign to his son Taonga, 15.
Taonga, a high school sophomore, was the first student to start a support club for Obama at East Side High School.
He was also involved in a grassroots finance committee where he raised $200 by sending out e-mails to ask for money to support the campaign.
Taonga said he relates to Obama because, like the new president, he has one African parent. He added that he wants to be a lawyer or a representative when he grows up.
His dad laughed and said "or a senator or a president. He's very modest."
When former Florida Representative Ed Jennings opened up an Obama campaign center in Gainesville, Taonga was given his own office in the building.
In June, the Leslies held a house party for Obama supporters to plan their campaign involvement. Then in May, they made a trip to Sunrise, Florida, to see him.
"He is a magnetic and inspiring speaker and whenever you hear him, you are moved," Leslie said. "It's something about how he speaks to your mind that awakes thoughts that were once dormant."
The Leslies took every opportunity to be close to the campaign. They attended Obama's Jacksonville speech and saw Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama speak in Gainesville.
After Michelle Obama spoke on the steps of the Hippodrome, she walked out to greet her audience and shook Taonga's hand.
"Michelle looked at him in his eyes like 'where have you been this whole time' and gave him a hug," Agnes said. "He just looked at me and said 'Mom, did you see that?'"
On Jan. 19, the Leslie family trekked from Gainesville to Orlando to Philadelphia, from where they drove to the inauguration.
The excited, but bleary eyed family awoke at 3:30 a.m. on January 20 to make their way to the National Mall.
When they finally arrived in D.C., Agnes said that thousands of people were chanting, "Yes we can!" and "Fired up, ready to go!" in the underground station.
"I was born 1964 and this is one of the things I never expected to see," Leslie said in reference to the inauguration of the United States' first black president.
Although he said there were people of all colors in attendance, he described the view of the Mall as a sea of black people of all shades and colors.
"It was an overwhelming experience for me," he said. "So many people who looked like me supporting a president who also looks like me."
Now that Obama has been sworn into office, the Leslies agreed that there is still more to be done to get the country back on its feet.
"Like President Obama said, this is only the beginning," Leslie said.
