It's an event that only happens every four years but for these students, it's the chance a lifetime.
"It's exciting because most people can't really go to it, most people can't say they've even seen it live," Camanche Eighth Grader Aveyone Norem says.
Eighth graders at Camanche Middle School have worked all year to raise almost $8,000 through the community to make the trip. This is the first time they'll see a presidential inauguration.
"We are going to experience the places they've been learning about all year, the things they've been seeing and the documents we've been talking about and actually get to experience it hands on," Social Studies Teacher Erin Montgomery says.
Along with that, four lucky students will get to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in a special ceremony Sunday.
"It's really exciting, nobody know what really to expect," Eighth Grader Chase White says.
Over at Third Baptist Church in Davenport, a group of 40 is making last minute preps for their trip Saturday.
"We're real excited, it's going to be an awesome time," Church Member Gloria Young says.
The group also traveled to DC four years ago to see President Barack Obama sworn in the first time.
"There were so many people and they were everywhere," Young says, "Some had climbed up on the port-o-potties, some were up in the trees; it was just an exciting and exhilarating time."
Although there are not as many expected this time around, less than half of the 1.8 million there in 2009, they hope to build new memories to pass on.
"In the future, it'll be something we can tell our grandchildren about and they can build on that, know that it's not impossible," Young says.
