While President Barack Obama was preparing to celebrate his inauguration at the inaugural ball, Ames residents and Democrats beat him to the punch at Legends Bar and Grill.

“We got a pretty big turnout,” said Brent Wynja, vice chair of the Story County Democrats.

The celebration, which went from 5:30 to 8 p.m., was organized by the Story County Democrats.

Members of the ISU Democrats and Students for Barack Obama attended as well.

Also making an appearance as master of ceremonies was Iowa State Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, who gave a short talk to the audience.

“We’ve witnessed democracy working with a peaceful transition of power,” he said. “In the midst of multiple crises, we’ve seen the first real reason for hope.”

President Obama’s inauguration, which took place Tuesday at 11 a.m., was both preceded and followed by massive amounts of media coverage, which most people in attendance agreed was unusual.

“The only other inauguration that caused as much of a stir that I can remember was for JFK, because he was the first Catholic to take the office,” said Doc Patterson, of Ames.

“I remember that because it was very celebrated in my hometown, which was a large Catholic community.”

Dennis Byrne, research associate of veterinary pathology, also recalls the attention paid to JFK’s inauguration, although he attributes it to a different reason.

“They both really were running on a platform of change, and they both had the same attitude to life,” he said.

Patterson, who hails from Monmouth, Ill., said that he has been an Obama supporter ever since the Senator from Illinois began his presidential run.

“I’ve been behind him since day one. I was a member of the fire service, and he was a big supporter of us,” Patterson said.

Other attendees, though, were generally more ambivalent toward Obama until he was the main Democratic nominee.

“I started by supporting Dodd in this campaign,” Byrne said.

David Denhaan, biology lab technician with the National Soil Tilth Laboratory, said that this last election was atypical from his previous experiences.

“I generally consider myself more of an independent, but Obama was so persuasive in my opinion that McCain really just wasn’t an option,” he said.

Most of those in attendance agreed that the President’s address after being sworn into office was just as memorable as his other speeches.

“Some people wanted another campaign speech from him, but that was really for the people,” said Ginny Huntington, of Ames.

And in his response, the people of America seem unified behind him, even some of those that once supported his chief democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY.

“We’ve got to move on from Hillary,” said Geoff Abelson, professor in special education. “I was very involved with her campaign, but now I can’t tell you how happy I am. This is wonderful for the country.”

Wynja talked about what he was doing when the inaugural speech was broadcast.

“I was in my office in Des Moines, listening to the speech with the rest of my office,” he said. “Most of them were actually Republicans, but they were pretty content throughout the whole thing.”

Wynja also said now that Obama is in office, it is time to get down to business.

“We’ve got to get to work implementing the Obama approach,” he said. “It will be a lot of work, but it will also be a work of joy.