The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

September 22, 2012

Local couple wins invite to stars’ fundraiser for Obama

By Courtney L. Saylor Herald Staff Writer

HERMITAGE — Most Tuesday nights Ericka and Bill Dungee tuck their two small kids in at their Hermitage home and get ready for the next day of school, but this week was a little different.

“Crazy,” Mrs. Dungee called meeting President Barack Obama and music superstars Beyoncé and Jay-Z – all at the same time.

Mrs. Dungee, 28, won a national contest and got to meet the dynamic trio at a $40,000-a-head fundraiser at New York’s 40/40 Club.

She donated $10 to the Obama campaign on Sept. 13 to enter the contest and get a bumper sticker. The next day, she found out she’d won.

It was hard to keep the news secret and Dungee said she could only tell her boss at Farrell City Schools and her mother who was keeping their kids while they were gone.

“Every time I saw somebody I had to bite my lip,” Dungee said.

Once they returned she could spill and Dungee said “My cell phone battery was dead fairly soon.”

Fans of Obama and the hip-hop mogul and his multi-talented wife for years, the Dungees got 15 minutes with them all at the end of the night.

“Too many famous people at one time,” Mrs. Dungee said in a Friday phone interview. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Dungee said Obama was “completely awesome” and down to earth and had a “kind of comedic” personality.

She said they talked about her job as a kindergarten teacher at Farrell, where her husband is the business manager. So Obama and Mr. Dungee “talked numbers.”

“He said he knows the struggle now for public schools,” Mrs. Dungee said. “He said ‘I’m trying my best … hang in there.”

They also talked about their kids. The Dungees’ son Christian is 2 years old and daughter Zoey is 5 months.

Also the mother of an infant, Beyoncé told Mrs. Dungee “you sound busy” and they talked about the cute things their babies are doing now.

Jay-Z and Bill Dungee talked sports, Mrs. Dungee said, noting that the couple were amused by the rapper’s cute laugh.

Dungee said Obama’s entire staff was wonderful and they really appreciated the things he said at the fundraiser.

“We’re middle class. The stuff he said meant a lot. We feel he’s trying his best to support us,” she said.

Her students sat rapt as she told them about meeting the president, whose picture hangs in their classroom.

“We know who he is!” one kid said. And another girl was excited about Beyoncé, whom Dungee said really is as gorgeous in person as she looks on television.

Though the children are very young, Dungee said she’ll still do a mock election with them come November. They’ll get a piece of paper with a photo of each candidate and circle the one they want to determine the winner for their class.

Dungee said she’s actively trying to get people out to vote and offering rides to the polls.

It’s “absolutely” important for everyone to exercise their right to vote, she said.

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