Valley girl rubs elbows with former President Carter

WASILLA — For most of her life, Lily Shaw, 11, didn’t really know who Jimmy Carter was.

But that was before she sat by Rosalynn Carter and President Carter at an April 12 fundraising auction her grandfather took her to in Plains, Pa.

David Baker said he found out about the auction after buying a gun through an online auction. When the gun the auction house sent in November 2010 was not the right one, Baker said he contacted Cook and Cook Auctions in Pennsylvania, which had the correct gun shipped.

But when that gun arrived, it was coated with sticky rubber from packing materials the gun dealer used and it took four or five hours to tear the gun a part, clean it and put it back together, Baker said.

So he called the auction house again, and that’s when he found out about a charity auction it was helping to organize.

The idea was that Plains, Penn., would organize a charity auction to benefit the Carters’ hometown of Plains, Ga. Thus the event’s title, “Plains Helping Plains.”

It’s a long way from Alaska to Pennsylvania, but Baker said to him it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet the Carters and share the experience with his granddaughter. He said he asked his wife Eva if she wanted to go, but she declined. So he asked Lily’s parents, Nina and John Shaw, if perhaps she would like to go.

And Lily said yes. For her, she said it was a chance to add another state to her list. So far she’s traveled to Hawaii, Texas, Florida and now Pennsylvania.

So Baker purchased two tickets to the Plains Helping Plains event.

But while he was at work at Teeland Middle School, the auction house called back to say it had some special seating near the Carters that was still available.

How much, Baker asked?

Seats right next to the Carters were $500 and seats one chair, or row, away were $250.

Baker opted to purchase the one remaining seat next to Rosalynn and the seat next to that one for Shaw and himself.

However, before they left on their April 11-14 adventure, Baker asked Shaw to prepare a report about the Carters. Shaw said that experience taught her a lot about the Carter family and the Carter presidency. And when she returned, she presented the report for school along with photos and items purchased at the auction. Shaw said she even translated part of the report into Spanish before presenting it at Fronteras Charter School.

The auction, which included 167 items from photos of the Carters’ time in the White House to paintings done by President Carter to signed books and tote bags, raised more than $70,000. Seven of those auction items now reside in Alaska with Baker and Shaw.

The Carters took a bit of Alaska back to Georgia with them, too. Shaw presented the Carters with a gift bag of Alaska items that included an Alaska Grown pin and dishcloths crocheted by her grandmother, Eva.

Toward the end of the three-hour fund-raiser, the auctioneer mentioned that Baker and Shaw had traveled from Alaska just to attend the auction, and folks came over to share their Alaska connections.

One of the large number of Secret Service agents there made a point to introduce himself to Baker afterward.

“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” he said. “My name is David Baker.”

“Awesome,” Alaska’s David Baker said. “I’ve never met another David Baker. What’s your middle initial?”

The two David Bakers discovered they both share the middle initial M.

The Secret Service agent said he also worked the Palin vice presidential campaign as part of the Secret Service in 2008.

Shaw said she’s glad she went, even though the flight took 16 hours. But if you ask Shaw, her favorite part of the adventure was the 175-mile road trip from Plains to Hershey, Penn. The theme park was closed for the winter, but she said a gift shop the size of Costco — called Chocolate World — was open. That’s where she bought her dad a 5-pound bar of Hershey’s chocolate for his birthday, Shaw said.

As for Baker, he couldn’t be more pleased with how their big adventure turned out.

“I’m very proud of her,” Baker said. “She was dignified and graceful at an event where kids would usually have a hard time.”

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.