District 13 principal meets the president

Willow Road School Principal Stephanie Capozzoli had quite a story to tell her colleagues when summer vacation ended. She met someone rather well known while away — the president of the United States.

Capozzoli’s chance encounter with President Obama happened while she was vacationing with her family in Bar Harbor, Maine. “We go to Disney World every year,” she said, “but we needed a quieter, restful vacation.”

After about a week in Bar Harbor, Capozzoli said, they learned that the president and his family would be coming to town. They never expected to even see Obama, let alone have their picture taken with him.

On July 16, Capozzoli, her husband, daughter, sister and brother-in-law had an early dinner, at about 5 p.m., at Stewman’s Lobster Pound. They decided to sit and eat downstairs rather than outside, under the umbrellas. In the middle of their dinner of peel-and-eat shrimp, they noticed several U.S. Coast Guard boats approaching a nearby pier, as well as a fleet of SUVs driving by outside. Capozzoli said she thought Obama was on his way to walk through town, and they were going to miss seeing him.

But he wasn’t getting out of one of those SUVs. He was getting off a boat, along with his wife, their daughters and a family friend, and entering the restaurant. “I said to my husband, ‘I don’t believe it. The president is here!’” Capozzoli said. In fact, she added, he was the first one off the boat, and she took a few pictures of him. “I had tears in my eyes,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

The president and his family sat down at the next table, Capozzoli said, adding that her husband and the president were back to back, just a few feet away from each other.

Capozzoli said the two families did get to talk a bit during dinner. Both had visited Acadia National Park, and Michelle Obama asked Capozzoli if the family had had a chance to pick the blueberries there. The two women also had a conversation about their children: Capozzoli’s daughter, Maggie, and Malia Obama are both 12.

After the first family came in, Capozzoli recalled, the restaurant was closed off. They were allowed to stay because they were already well into their meal when the president arrived. A waiter told Capozzoli that he only found out shortly ahead of time that Obama was on his way there. “I think if it was planned,” she said, “they would not have sat us there.”

Capozzoli said she knew nobody would believe her story, so she wanted to get a picture of the president. She and her sister were debating who should ask him, and then Capozzoli decided she would just do it. Initially, she said, Obama was hesitant, but he eventually agreed because Capozzoli’s family were the Obamas’ “mealmates.” The president asked for 10 more minutes so they could finish their dinners, so Capozzoli and her family ordered blueberry pie and coffee while they waited.

One of Obama’s aides took the photo, and the president put his arm around her shoulder. She now has an 8-by-10 print of the picture hanging in her office at the elementary school in Franklin Square, and she also sent Obama a copy of the picture with a thank-you letter. “You always bring your camera,” she said. “It’s a summer vacation.”

Capozzoli said that Obama thanked her brother-in-law, Marco, who works for the Department of Defense, and wished Maggie good luck in the seventh grade. She said he thought their family was from Boston.

Their chance to meet the president was the highlight of the family’s 12-day trip to Maine, Capozzoli said. “He’s such a regular person and he’s extremely charismatic,” she said.

And even ordinary people can end up in an extraordinary situation, she concluded. “Normally we wouldn’t eat at that time,” she said. “But we had no lunch that day. It was just being in the right place at the right time.”