With millions attending Barack Obama's inauguration, we said that we wanted to hear your story. Many of you have sent Kevin Anderson an email at kevin.anderson@theguardian.com, a Twitter message at GuardianUS, a message to him on Facebook and a few of you have commented on Deadline USA.
Janet Oosthuysen from Calder Valley said she and her partner made arrangements to attend the inauguration after Obama's victory in November. The were fortunate enough to find a hotel room just outside of Washington DC so they could stay close to the action. Oosthuysen plans to take part in Obama's call for a national day of service.
I signed up to the Obama mailings during the election and so have heard that there is a day of community action on the Monday, including a trade union march for better conditions that we want to attend. There's also various clean up jobs going on which we will try and go to in between the usual tourist sights.
Sally Smith, an American who studied at Leeds University, told us about her brother, Peter Smith, who is helping a group of students at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts organise a trip to Washington for the inauguration. She said the students will be using a variety of social networking services such as Twitter, Delicious, Flickr, UStream, YouTube, Qik and Facebook to cover the event.
The efforts of the students aren't going unnoticed. The group is getting attention from the likes of the National Post in Canada, a Boston television station, PBS and USA Today
Smith said:
This is a great group of kids adding a unique twist to their education by incorporating modern technology and social networking.
We appreciate those who have already shared their stories. We'll be highlighting others this week in the lead up to the inauguration. To share your story, you can leave a comment below, send a message to us on Twitter @GuardianUS, or tag your blog post, podcast or video inaug09 - that way we'll see it. And you can always send an email to kevin.anderson@theguardian.com.
If you are heading to Washington for the inauguration, you also might want to check out our top 10 alternative sights in the city, this schedule of inaugural events and this blog post containing travel tips.
