Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

History teacher Stephanie Doyle helps her students make study cards Tuesday at Breckinridge Middle School. Doyle, who was named Virginia Teacher of the Year in October, will attend Barack Obama's inauguration next week.

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Awesome. Momentous. Amazing. Historic.

Stephanie Doyle can hardly find enough adjectives as she talks about her preparations to attend president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington next week.

The last one may be most appropriate for Doyle, who teaches history at Roanoke's Breckinridge Middle School and was selected as Virginia Teacher of the Year last year. Doyle is the owner of a scarce front-row ticket for the event. VIP tickets to the event are for sale online for more than $20,000.

"I'm just in awe," Doyle said earlier this week as she awaited word on final arrangements for her trip.

"I think it's so amazing to get to sit there, to be that close to the action. I never, never would have dreamed of being that close," Doyle said. "It will be a first in my life."

She got two tickets -- her husband, Joe, can't wait to get there, either, although he'll be sitting farther back -- courtesy of newly seated U.S. Sen. Mark Warner.

As he was contemplating who should get one of the fewer than 400 tickets he was allotted, Warner decided to contact the state board of education to find the teacher of the year and invite her.

During his term as governor of Virginia, "I can't think of anything he worked harder on than public education," said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the senator.

So, Warner "was very pleased at how excited she was and to give the opportunity to a middle school history teacher to see history close up. Closer than most folks will ever get."

Doyle agreed wholeheartedly.

"What a momentous occasion to witness as a history teacher, to see the first African-American president inaugurated, to tell my grandchildren I was there. And my students will be watching on TV while I'm there. That's awesome as a history teacher and a history nut."

Given the scarcity of those tickets and the extraordinary demand for them, it's also mighty lucky.

The only way to get a ticket for the seating closest to the swearing in is through a congressman or senator. Each member of the U.S. House of Representatives received 198 tickets and senators received 393.

So, Virginia's 11 congressmen and two senators received a total of 2,964 tickets.

It may sound like a lot, but consider that Sen. Jim Webb alone received 40,000 requests for tickets -- with each request representing a plea for anywhere from two to 10 tickets.

Add into the equation that state and local politicians and party operatives are usually at the top of the list to receive tickets and that special visitors -- such as Doyle -- are often selected.

There aren't many tickets left for the general public. And that's magnified in a state such as Virginia, which is close to the event.

"Inevitably, a lot of people are going to be disappointed," Webb spokeswoman Jessica Smith said.

"At the same time," she said, "we haven't been discouraging people from coming. The entire Mall is going to be open with only the area in front of the swearing in roped off. We're expecting upwards of 4 million people, and that is all free -- the presidential parade and other events."

And Smith pointed out that it might actually be easier to see the swearing in on the giant TV screens being set up along the Mall than up front.

Hall said Warner got fewer requests -- about 4,000 -- but that was probably because as a newly elected senator, his office was open only a few days before the deadline for requests passed.

He said the office was trying to coordinate with Webb and the rest of the congressional delegation to avoid any duplication in the distribution of tickets. And all the delegation is trying to coordinate passing out tickets to VIPs.

"We want to make sure all the Democratic Party chairs who did so much in Virginia last year to help turn Virginia blue get a pair of tickets," Hall said. "Right there, you've got 134 tickets. Add in the congressional district chairs, and you're up over 150 tickets. And we're working to make sure all of the members of the General Assembly who want to go get a pair."

Warner also designated a block of 20 tickets for a Virginia businessman he knows who is investing $1.6 million to pay for what he's calling a "People's Inauguration."

Earl Stafford, 60, of Fairfax County will fill 300 rooms at the JW Marriott Hotel, providing food, beauticians and even clothes for guests from across the country. They will include "those who are distressed, those who are terminally ill, those who are socially and economically disadvantaged, those veterans who are wounded and served our country," Stafford told The Washington Post recently.

Warner also has set aside tickets for each of the presidents of Virginia's five historically black colleges and universities.

Congressmen also could divvy up their allotment of 198 tickets however they wanted.

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, designated tickets for "primarily Democratic officeholders, community leaders and at random," according to press secretary Kathryn Rexrode.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, wrote on his Web site that his tickets would be distributed in the order the requests were received.

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Albemarle County, distributed his tickets by random lottery, according to Jessica Barba, his director of communications.

For Doyle, this will be the first of two opportunities to see the new president this year -- and next time she'll be closer.

In April, she'll be invited to Washington to shake hands with Obama when she represents Virginia at the National Teacher of the Year celebration.

But the inauguration carries a special significance to her, she said, because of what it means to her students.

"This is the first really big thing in their lifetime that they can remember. They were too young to remember 9/11.

"Many of them are African-American, and this is something they can celebrate, that they can look up to."

The event says to them, "anyone can achieve anything, no matter who you are, no matter where you come from," she said. "This is proof, truly, of the American dream."