Sweet Home resident Angelita Sanchez wore a black Ralph Lauren evening gown with a rhinestone collar, a vintage wool coat from a Jewish Hungarian immigrant furrier, and combat boots to the Presidential Inaugural Liberty Ball in Washington, D. C., on Jan. 20.

As an at-large delegate and an elector for the Oregon Republican Party, Sanchez’s name was thrown into the hat for a lottery draw by the Trump 47 Inauguration Committee to attend inauguration events in D.C., and her name was drawn.
“I got picked,” she exclaimed.
Sanchez, who serves on Sweet Home’s City Council, won tickets to attend Sunday’s Presidential Trump rally, and Monday’s inauguration and Presidential Liberty Ball. However, due to bad weather, the swearing-in of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance had to be moved from the National Mall to the Capitol Rotunda inside the U.S. Capitol, and all other events were now on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Instead of attending the Trump rally on Sunday, Sanchez visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“It was overwhelming,” she said.
She recalled watching “Schindler’s List” at The Rio when she was a child and how emotional of a story it was for her.
“I was taken back to that moment,” she said, referring to when she visited an exhibit called “Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story.”
The exhibit takes visitors through a replica of young Daniel’s home and life as a middle class or upper-middle class Jew in Germany, and into the point when they were forced out of their home to be relocated to the ghettos.
“To walk through that transition, to see what they were forced to eat, what they were forced to live like… and then they said that the children were killed first, and that’s where I broke down in tears again,” Sanchez said.
On Monday, attendees were again invited inside the Capitol One Arena, where they could watch a viewing of the swearing-in ceremonies. Sanchez watched the inauguration on television with local friends and got ready for the Liberty Ball instead.
According to her, crowds of people had been waiting in line overnight at the Capitol One Arena to be among the 20,000 allowed to enter.
“I was like, there’s no way, I’m not doing that. I’ve already been to a rally. I really wished I could go to the inauguration, but I am for sure gonna wait in line for the Presidential Ball.”
Temperatures that day were expected to be at a low of 16 degrees and a high of 26 degrees. At noon, as the swearing in began, temperatures reached 27 degrees with a wind chill of 14 degrees.
“Trying to primp for the ball and get there in a timely fashion to wait in line and get around the security perimeter was a journey in and of itself,” she said. “The weather was the coldest thing I’ve ever experienced. I thought I was gonna die of hypothermia, and this is not an exaggeration.”
She stood in line for more than three hours in below-freezing temperatures, wearing a layer of thermal underwear, her dress, two coats, wool socks, and gloves with hand warmers; she carried with her a pair of heels.
“The cold penetrated through all of that,” she said.
Attending the ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center with her fiancé, the pair opted to forego hors d’ouevres in order to secure a spot near the Presidential seal where President Trump and Melania Trump would dance.
“It was sandwiched in like sardines. If you moved from that spot, you weren’t gettin’ back.”
They stood their ground just three rows from the seal for three hours and were rewarded for their persistence by being able to get a good look at the first family.
“We had stood in line for upwards of seven hours to get to that one 15-minute moment,” Sanchez said.
By then, her cold-weather clothing was working against her.

“It was hot. It was awful. I thought I was gonna pass out,” she said, noting she was not going to lose her spot so she could remove some of the extra layers. “I smuggled in a New Era and used it for a fan to cool me down. It came in really handy.”
The Nov. 27, 2024 issue she brought with her had the front page headline, “OHA, USACE halt Green Peter Drawdown.”
“Well, we have to get this drawdown to stop. With what Trump’s doing with his executive orders, I was just like, ‘If there’s a way, I’m gonna share this with him.’ I was like, I’ve got to get to this ball,” she said, laughing.
“I was prepared to go – if I could – advocate, you know?”
Sanchez said there was space to dance if they’d retreated from the “coveted spot.” She described the ball as giving off nightclub vibes, with performances by Jason Aldean, the Village People and Billy Ray Cyrus (who was “a hot mess”). She imagined it would have been a lot of fun to dance, but she wasn’t going to leave her spot.
Overall, the weekend excursion paced quickly and chaotically, but Sanchez said she wants the city of Sweet Home to know that there was somebody there representing them on a national level – and trying to advocate to halt the deep drawdown at Green Peter.
“I would have never expected the opportunity to be a part of this,” she said. “This is one of the greatest experiences of my life.”