CONCORD, N.C. — Two people who visited President Jimmy Carter at the White House nearly 50 years ago are reminiscing about their field trip. 

Carter, the 39th president of the United States, died on Dec. 29 at 100. 

In 1977, 68 students and 13 chaperones traveled to Washington, D.C., to tour the Capitol, monuments and, more importantly, to meet with Carter, a Democrat. 

Max Harris was the principal of Beverly Hills Elementary School in Concord at the time, and Alice Weaver was a fifth-grader. 

“To be at the White House and they treated so royally. That was unbelievable. And it was just a wonderful experience,” Harris said. 

Harris, now 90, vividly remembers the Secret Service being by their side during their time in D.C.

“Everything was planned by Secret Service, just like that, so we went from place to place to place,” Harris said.

This experience was made possible after an invitation Carter made to a group of fourth-graders, including Weaver, during a campaign stop in Concord a year earlier. 

Harris explained it happened the same day the Boy’s Club hosted its annual pancake sale to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club. 

“That day is a big day for the whole community, so I was told that his motorcade was going to come through Concord. Well, the fourth-grade teacher decided that it’d be a good time to have a field trip to downtown,” Harris said. 

The group stood behind the Catholic church, and Carter noticed them and approached. 

“He says, I think it went like this, and I may be wrong. It’s been a long time: ‘When I’m elected, when or if I’m elected, president…will y’all come to Washington and visit me?’ And they said yes, but he made them to go further. They had to raise their hand and say they would come,” Harris recounted. 

Once Carter was elected, Harris contacted Carter’s press secretary Jody Powell with the help of the editor of the local newspaper.

He said the president remembered his promise when Powell asked him about the invitation.  

“He says, ‘I sure do. And I want those children to come to Washington.’ And so that’s how it started,” Harris said. 

Then the students and the community held several fundraisers to make the visit a reality. 

“We did several things that were real, meaningful. We wanted all the kids. We had kids of wealthy parents. We had kids of not so wealthy, and we had some very poor children. I wanted all of them to go or no one to go,” Harris said. “Beverly Hills figured out a way, and we wanted to get all the kids participating in every fundraising deal that we had.”

They included a chicken noodle dinner, personal donations, an aluminum sale and children’s special donations and piggy bank. 

“We suggested that for children to pick up cans on the highway or any place with their parents and bring them to school, and the janitor crushed them, flattened them, and put them in bags so we could hold on to the junkyard and get some money,” Harris said. 

Harris remembers most of the community at the time was Republican. 

“The politics was not even mentioned or talked about because their children was more important than that. And to think that they are going to have that opportunity of doing something that till this day can never be repeated,” Harris said. 

They collected $9,000, surpassing the trip’s expenses by $2,000. The Concord community used the rest of the funds for AV equipment for the library. 

“I think about our parents and everything that the Beverly Hills and Concord community did to make this happen, because they moved heaven and earth to make this happen. And it was a total team effort by our community,” Weaver said. 

It was Weaver’s first time flying. 

“At 10, we were just excited to go on a field trip. It really kicked in when we got there,” Weaver said. “Now, as an adult, that’s what I really think about it. The impact that it had on all of us.”

Weaver’s mother saved pictures and keepsakes of that trip, including her plane ticket. “$65.34 Charlotte to Washington National and then back to Charlotte,” Weaver read. 

“He took time to speak to all of us and to shake our hands and was just so personable and made the visit that much more special,” Weaver said. 

Now, with the rest of the country, they mourn Carter's passing. 

“I was sad because, not because of what he did as president, but he is one of the finest Christian men that we’ve all heard of that went to the White House,” Harris said. 

“I was heartbroken. I admired him so much for his humanitarian work,” Weaver said. 

They are holding onto the lasting memory of that presidential visit.

“We just had our 40th class reunion, high school reunion, and we were actually talking about that this event happened. And, you know, that’s something that we'll never forget, even this many years later,” Weaver said. 

Recounting this story for a newspaper article a year ago helped Weaver and Harris reconnect after all these years. 

President Joe Biden declared Jan. 9, the day of Carter’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral, as a day of mourning.