You're watching On Q, because these foundations care enough about local programing to help pay for it.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, the McCune Foundation, the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Benter Foundation.

Additional funding is made possible by the Pennsylvania Public Television Network and by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.

Helping On Q showcase thi region's vibrant arts community.

Corporate fundin is provided by Nova Chemicals.

Funding stories of innovation in our region.

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The members of WQED, next On Q and experience this loca sixth grader will never forget.

He was specially selected to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Find out what it was like through a child's eyes.

Also tonight, baby flamingos.

What could be cuter there at the aviary?

See how they're doing?

We'll also remembe legendary performer Eartha Kitt.

Find out what she thought of Pittsburgh On Q. Starts now.

Welcome to On Q. I'm Michael Bartley.

January 20th, 2009 will forever be etched into the hearts and minds of man who witnessed the inauguration of the first African-America to the United States presidency.

Millions of people around the world watched on TV as Barack Obama was sworn into office.

Hundreds of thousands traveled to Washington so they could experience the ceremony firsthand.

One of them was a boy from Swissvale who got to the nation's capitol as the result of a program that honors kids for their outstanding academic talents.

On Qs, Tonia Caruso has the story of the inauguration as seen through the eyes of this young boy.

Boys and girls, I'd like you to please place your pencils down and close your book.

We have a guest in our classroom today.

That guest is 11 year old, Justin McCord And he's been invited to read to younger schoolmates at Dickson Intermediate in Swissvale.

Now, the book I'm going to read is called Barack Obama.

Son of promise, child of Hope.

This day, he's chosen a book about the 44th president of the United States who's that?

The boy asked his mother.

Pointing to the screen.

That's Barack Obama, she said.

Barack what?

Barack Obama, she repeated with a smile.

I know it's a mouthful.

Anyway, he's someone very special.

He's very special to Justin as well.

And January, the sixth grader, traveled to Washington, D.C.

for the swearin in of the first African American elected to the U.S.

presidency.

Hundreds of other children from across the nation were also invited as part of the Junior Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference.

Museum tour and a black tie inaugural gala were part of the agenda.

It was a really, really nice time.

I can't really think of a word to explain how great it was.

I just had a really awesome time.

A time he won't soon forget.

An outgoing child who loved singing and acting.

Justin is also what fourth grade teache Deborah Taylor calls a leader.

In 2007, Miss Taylor nominated him to become part of a program that helped Justin to get to the inauguration.

It was called NYS National Young Scholars Program.

And I was because I was an alumni of that, I got to come back.

I got a letter telling me about the inauguration.

And that's how I got to come go to the inauguration.

So when you first get this letter and it says you're invited to attend the inauguration, what did you think?

That first I wasn't excited.

I didn't know what inauguration was.

But then when I found out what it was, I got more excited about it and learned more about it.

But being a part of history was expensive.

Justin and his parents, Michelle and Burl McCord, had to raise more than $2,500 to cover fees and expenses.

We did a car wash.

We sold chicken dinners.

We had two lemonade stand.

You worked hard to raise the mone because it wasn't exactly cheap.

No it wasn't.

But I think the educational component and the historic event in itself really made it worth it.

Yeah, yeah Michelle did most of that work.

I have to give her credit.

She did all the hard work.

Both families pitche in and did what they had to do.

Private donations also helped Justin to afford the trip.

A trip that would not have been possible had i not been for Justin's teacher.

So you nominated him.

And then when he was accepted, how did you feel?

Oh, I was really I was elated.

I was happy that he was accepted.

The fact that he had leadership skills and the fact that he, was outstanding and very outspoken.

So I knew they would see that there.

Yeah.

And so then when you got word that because of this, Justin now had the opportunity to attend the inauguration.

How did that make you feel?

Well, I cried.

I was just happy.

I love to help any, child when it comes to their dream.

And I knew this was part of his dream.

And that's what Woodland Hills is.

Is all about, is helpin children fulfill their dreams.

You know, besides the academics.

And that dream unfolded on January 20th when Justin arrived in Washington, D.C., the crowd was so huge that Justi and other members of his group never got to the front section reserved for ticket holders.

How many people would you say were there?

Like a trillion.

It was hard to move.

Like it looks like very tight space.

And there was a you had to move with the crowd because if you didn't, you get running ran into or something like that.

Was it exciting though, to see?

Yeah, it was exciting.

But you had to be careful because you had to stay with your group because some people got lost.

But we found them.

So tell me about that day and people around you.

Well, I was there was a little bit of crying, and some people were up in tre standing on the portage lawns, and people were standing still and watching and then listening and then cheering with everybody.

It doesn't bother Justin that he didn't get to experience the inauguration up close.

He got to see and do plenty of other things while he was in Washington.

He visited the National Air and Space Museum and hear some very famous people speak.

We got to see Erik Weihenmayer.

He was a blind person who climbed Mount Everest.

We got to see Colin Powell and Al Gore.

We had, a boat ride on the Potomac, and the boat was the Odyssey.

And we went on the boat and had a little continental breakfast, and they were dancing on the boat as we had our boat ride.

But the celebrating wouldn' end there on inauguration night.

Members of the conference hosted a youth gala.

I wore black suit, a red bow tire and a red button, and a white tuxedo shirt.

And there was a live band called Lost in Paris.

And we danced an there were games around there.

And we had out to the University of Maryland.

And now that all the inaugural festivities are over, Justin can reflect back on his historic journey.

How long do you think you'll remember this?

All my life.

Why?

Because it was a really good spirit.

The first African-American president, you know?

It was a lot of fun.

Come.

She said if you sit still, I'll tell you his story.

And since his return, Justin not only reads to his schoolmates about President Obama, he also talks to them about what he saw and heard in our nation's capital.

He went, why was it important for Justin to come back and talk to your classes about what he experienced during the inauguration?

Well, for an example, for the other children in the classroom that they too can fulfill their dreams.

Now the children feel they can become a president.

You know, they could be the CEO of a company.

It gave them hope.

And coming from some of the backgrounds in the neighborhood that our children come from, it's necessary for them to have hope.

And hope can go a long, long way.

I hope that Justin will follow his dreams.

Focus on the gifts and the talents that he's been given and just kind of go from there.

He knew for certain hope would last long enough for him to make a difference.

I was happy that Justin was going to be able to go and witness history.

It showed hi that if he set his mind to it, there was nothing tha he could not do in this country.

To me, what was involved with the Washington?

Is.

An invaluable lesson indeed.

Justin say the election of President Obama has not only shown kids from all backgrounds that they can aspire to the presidency.

It has made them excited about history and politics.

And really, father and so here have something in common.

Michael.

Justin's father, Burl, attended the inauguration of President Lyndon Johnson.

He won that through a newspaper contest.

Speaking of which, you know, his mother says he wants to.

He should follow his dream as politics in the picture form.

I know he's young.

He's young.

And at this point right now, Justin's really into acting and singing.

He's involved with a local community theater group and also enjoys writing.

So right now it looks like he's heading for a career in the arts.

But who knows?

He's young.

And, the other thing he told me, though, is that he would not mind hanging out with Sasha and Malia.

Oh, really?

Obama And really a great thanks to the people there.

And then students there.

Dixon Intermediate.

What a great school, great environment, great kids that we and all the people who helped hi go with monetary contribution.

A lot of work involved.

Yeah.

Great story.

Them now from Washington back to Pittsburgh.

You have this next story as well.

And it takes us someplace warm.

Someplace warm indeed.

If you are tired of this weather.

How about a local escape?

The wetlands of the Americas room with the National Aviary is a balmy 80 some degrees.

But that's not the only reason we paid the aviary a visit.

We wanted to also meet its newest residents three baby flamingo who are now calling the Wetlands Room home.

Forget the blustery, wintery cold Pittsburgh days.

One step inside the wetlands of the Americas Room at the National Aviary, and you're transported to the tropics with some fairly exotic neighbors including some flashy flamingos.

They're incredibly social animals.

They usually are found in flocks of thousands of birds.

In fact, a lot of times when zoos are breeding their flamingos, they actually will put up mirrors around the exhibit to give the flamingos the idea that there are more flamingos than there really are.

And that's how we can trick them into breeding.

Feeling comfortable enough to breed.

The aviary has been home to adult flamingos for years.

A great flock, but too few to breed.

So the staff came u with an idea and they do travel quite a bit.

Erin Estelle is the aviarie manager of Community Outreach, and we decided last year that it would be really neat to get a group of flamingos that we can hand raise and actually get them used to being around humans and see if we could train the to be in one of our bird shows.

So we actually acquired, several eggs of flamingos.

And we ended up with thre little chicks that hatched out at the end of June and the beginning of July.

Three little chicks, all a light shade of gray.

One born, one boy, one girl and one they're not so sure about.

It sounds silly, but you have to do DNA blood testing to know for sure.

And, the results when we got them back were not conclusive, so we had to try again for that one.

But their names, we actually named them after Muppets characters.

So the male is piggy.

The female that we know for sure is Sweetums.

And then the unknown one is Beaker.

So we'll see.

For the past seven months, piggy, Sweetums, and Beaker have lived in a nursery, but a few weeks ago marked a giant step.

They moved in with the adults.

The adult seem to be doing okay with them.

You'll see that they kind of.

They kind of hang out in their own clumps.

So you get babies in one grou and the adults in another group, but they're learning their place in the social structure.

Hi.

I know you're taller than me.

They're still not the full grown height of an adult flamingo, but they're much taller.

They don't have that pink color yet.

Flamingos actually get their pink color from the food that they eat in the wild.

They eat crustaceans and algae and all of that stuff has this beta carotene in it that give them their bright pink color.

Well, here in captivity, we can't grow the algae and crustaceans the same way that they do in the wild.

So we actually have to use a special formulated pelle that has the beta carotene and the other minerals inside of i to give them their pink color.

We learned from Erin and trainer Dave Miller that the flamingos have at least a few human traits.

You might call them a bit vain.

They'll spend up to 30% of their day preening, which is a lot more than most waterfowl.

And they're not always calm.

See?

He's shaking a little bit.

Yeah, Sweetums over here.

And that's because he's thinking about whether or not he wants to come forward.

So they get a little nervous before they make a decision.

A lot of times, you'll see bird behavior right before they're ready to try something new.

So how exactly will the baby flamingos be trained?

If we see a bird Dave says it will be a process that happens over time.

First and foremost, I want the to be very comfortable with me.

I want them to see me as just another part of this room rather than a threat.

And then as they star to get more comfortable with me, I'll start to warm them up through food.

Everybody loves food and I'll start to give them some extra treats.

On this day, those treats eventually lure the baby birds our way.

These guys are doing really well.

Like I think I think you're goin to have them trained in no time.

The adult flamingos here don't take part in any shows, but that doesn't mean they're not show offs in the wild.

Flamingos communicate by honking.

Replacing the honks with human clap can trigger dance like behavior.

It's designed to show how good of a mate eac flamingo would be in the wild.

First they're going to slap their foot in the water and possibly scratch the side of their face and that's to attract attention.

The next thing they're going to do, hopefully, is stretch out one wing and one leg, and that's to show off thei long legs and their long wings that they can fly and wade through deep wate to collect food for their young.

The last part is to bow forward and get your wings out, and that's to make yourself appear as large as possible to guard your nesting site.

Are they smart birds?

Flamingos, I don't think are the smartest animals on the planet, but they are social, so there's some level of intelligence.

They're intelligent but perhaps even more important, entertaining.

We're very excited because we actually just broke ground on the beginning of our expansion, and that's going to include this theater.

That's a state of the art indoor bird show theater with stages all around the audience and screens and lighting and sound.

And we're actually going to train the flamingo to perform in that show space.

And time.

Well, mangos are my favorite bird because I think they're really comical and beautiful all in one.

They're very elegant and they're very pristine in their look, but they also have some very comical, strange, antics that flamingos get into.

That new theater is expected to be completed in 2010, but you don't have to wait that long to see the newest flamingos.

In fact, this Saturday, February 14th, Valentine's Day is in the Pink Flamingo Day at the aviary.

Admission is half price for anyone who shows up wearing pink.

And if you're still stuc for a Valentine's Day present, how about adopting a Tweety for your sweetie?

It's your chance to sponsor one of the aviary birds.

And for more information on both events, you can log on to our website wqed.org/OnQ.

Those are good deals.

I got you a penguin.

Did you?

Okay.

Thank you.

Pinky.

Anyway, I felt so bad about the leg shaking.

Are they afraid of people when they come near you?

When they.

They talk about their bird behavior?

When they are first entered into an environment they're unsure of, or they see people they're unsure of.

It takes them a while.

That' kind of part of their process.

They're nervous.

They're trying to figure out.

And only after we ignored them and started talking amongst ourselves and they came, did they come over and then sort of find time with us.

No, they're not unfriendly.

And actually, Dave Miller will tell you, these birds are very smart.

They're in flocks of thousands.

When the mother flies away to get food, she leaves the baby flamingo with a nanny.

Essentially, when she comes back and flock of thousands, she will find her chick instantly and feed them.

So they're not very smart.

They're kind of smart.

All right.

Thank you Tonia.

Still ahead, remembering the legendary Eartha Kitt.

We look back on a visit she made to Pittsburgh just a few years ago On Q. Continues.

You're watching On Q because these foundations care enough about local programing to help pay for it.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation behind endowments, the McCune Foundation, the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Benter Foundation.

Additional funding is made possible by the Pennsylvania Public Television Network and by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.

Helping On Q showcase thi region's vibrant arts community.

Corporate fundin is provided by Nova Chemicals.

Funding stories of innovation in our region.

And these corporations also support On Q. When my good cholesterol number was really, really bad.

When my fourth attempt to quit smoking failed, when my relaxed fit jeans didn't feel so relaxed when I'd leave the office.

But it wouldn't leave me.

But I wanted to make sure I stay healthy.

Highmarks, lifestyl information support and health and wellness innovations like you have a greater hand in your health every day.

No matter what the market does when the economy makes waves.

Where can you find insight?

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And we couldn't do it without you.

The members of WQED.

Viewers ask all the time for repeats of On Q stories and specials, and we want to know what you'd like to see again.

So log on to our website wqed.org/OnQ.

Submit your viewers requests for an on Q story.

We'll do our best to show it again.

Actress singer legend Orson Welles once described Eartha Kitt as the most exciting woman in the world.

Eartha Kitt died at the age of 81 this past December, and just a few years ago, she starred in the musical Cinderella.

Part of the Pittsburgh Broadway series On Q, contributor Minette Seate caught up wit Eartha Kitt during that visit.

Here' another look at that interview.

As we remember Eartha Kitt.

Have you ever been in Pittsburgh before?

Yes, I've been here many times before.

I have been here when I was a very young girl doing shows her when Pittsburgh was the Pitts.

But but now it seems that it has grown a bit and the air is much cleaner.

So appropriate that you're in Cinderella because your life was pretty much been this and the story you made it into this wonderful, amazing adventure.

Do you have any kind of advice for anybody who thinks that they can't accomplish?

And the magic is within you, not in anybody else?

Because like the fairy godmother says to Cinderella, how do you think you're going to get to the party?

I suppose you think one of these yellow pumpkins is going to magically transform into a golden carriage, and there's mice who become horses to pull the whole golden carriage.

And she's a no.

That's impossible.

And then she sings the song.

It's impossible.

Then it comes when she realizes, when Cinderella realizes that it's up to her to find a way to get to the party.

Then the fairy godmother does the magic to help her.

But it's all in you.

And because these daft and dewy- eyed dopes Keep building up impossible hopes, Impossible things are happening every day.

They're happening every day.

Impossible.

You are in amazing shape.

Oh, yes.

I have your rejuvenate book with me.

Wonderful.

Well, I'm very glad that you have the book, because the book is not really about exercising in order to keep physically fit in a very rigid way.

I think if you use common sense and you know what is goo for your body and you know how the mind is going to work after your weakness, certain foods, then it's up to you to decid for yourself as to whether you are going to continuously eat the wrong things that are going to make you feel exhausting and the brai is not going to work properly.

If you are eating constantly, the wrong thing.

I'm not into being fanatical about anything, but I think you as a person using common sense, eating the proper kind of foods that you know is going to help the body rejuvenate itself.

You've done everything, you've done film, you've done theater, you've been nominated for Tony Awards, you've made records.

You've been the biggest sex symbol.

What's your favorite of all the things that youve done all of the above, because I think everything that I do has a lot to do with what I, I feel I'm capable of doing.

And once I feel I'm capable of doing that, it's because maybe somebody told me I couldn't do that, as it were, really, because I got into show business on a dare.

You know, one of my girlfriends dared me to have an audition for the Katherine Dunham Ballet Company.

I didn't know anything about that kind of dancing, but I wanted to meet her because those beautiful legs going out over the screen, you know, I thought it was absolutely fabulous.

And therefore I said, oh, okay, I think I'll take the dar and I want a full scholarship.

I'll buy a romance.

Me when.

You meet m whisper sweet, tender nothings when you greet me, either wine or dining.

I used to watch the old Batman TV show.

I loved it when you are on.

And you were Catwoman.

It was my favorite thing in the whole world, and I didn't know it at the time.

But you were like a role model.

Do you like being a role model?

That's one of the main reasons why I tried to take care of myself by being mentally alert and physically fit and staying away from trashy people, negative people, and hold on to quality so that when people see me, they will realize I haven't been an angel.

But I certainly have trie to maintain the values of myself and the value of life in general.

Yes, I like being a role model.

That's why I try to behave.

Oh Don't forget, tomorrow night at 10 p.m., you can see An evening with Eartha Kitt right here on WQED.

That's Friday night, 10 p.m., An evening with Eartha Kitt.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

Don't forget every Friday night On Q is Off.

Q, tune in tomorrow night at 7:30 as Chris Moore hosts this look back at the big news of the week, Chris is joined with Bill green, Valerie McDonald Roberts, Heather Heidel, John McIntyr Off Q live at 7:30 Friday night.

The meantime for Tonia Caruso, all of us here at On Q I'm Michael Bartley, thanks for watching tonight and good night.