Millions of people will descend on Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration later this month — and hundreds of Bermudians will be among them.

Many Islanders are making the trip to Washington D.C. to ensure they get to see history in the making when the first African-American president of the United States is sworn in.

Those attending include Premier Ewart Brown and his executive aide Jamahl Simmons, Ombudsman Arlene Brock, members of the Island's own Obama supporters' organisation Bermuda4Barack and student groups from various schools.

Bermuda4Barack coordinator Amani Flood, a corporate administrator originally from California, said she booked her flights four days after the historic election.

"I knew I wanted to go," she said. "I'm going to DC to join in the mêlée and just be a part of the crowd.

"I tried every stone I could turn over but I couldn't get a ticket. But I had to be there. I know if I missed it, I'd regret it."

Ms Flood is part of another organisation on the Island, Passports to College, which is celebrating the presidential inauguration at the Fairmont Southampton on Thursday night (see side panel for ticket details).

Passports chairman Robin O'Neil, a clinical educator originally from America who now lives in Warwick, said she flew home to vote in the election and wasn't going to miss the inauguration.

As well as the Fairmont celebration, she has organised an inauguration ball in Maryland which Bermudian students studying in the US can attend. She will also be meeting students from CedarBridge Academy in DC.

"I would love to just be relaxing and waiting on the day to celebrate Barack but I felt like what an opportunity, a time in history," she said. "Change starts with you."

Anthony Wade, deputy principal of CedarBridge, is taking 12 students to see the inauguration as part of a trip organised last June.

"It was pretty good insight on the part of the teacher who arranged it," he said. "We don't have any tickets but we do have a number of educational objectives we are going to pursue. We will be right in the vicinity of both the swearing-in and also the inaugural parade."

Twenty three students from Saltus Grammar School will also be in the American capital for the event, led by history teacher Vicki Crabb. She said: "I started organising it in about March or April of last year. We were going to go and see the inauguration but we had no idea who it would be. It's turning into a massive thing and lots of people have said 'I wish I was coming'."

Dalton Guame-Wakefield, a 13-year-old Bermudian at school in Texas, was picked to go to DC for the inauguration as part of the People to People leadership programme for youngsters. "I wanted to see the first African American president of the United States be sworn in," said Dalton. "I was kind of rooting for the guy. Hopefully he'll be able to change some things."

Robert Jones, 31, a New Yorker who is married to a Bermudian and lives in Somerset, is heading to DC with a friend after managing to get tickets to the inauguration through a family friend.

"Basically, I'll be there to see history," said the father-of-two. "It's something that a lot of people are very excited about and I'm quite sure we all knew the change had to come.

"He's going to be the first African-American president so it's something I wanted to see, to be proud to witness."

Other Bermudians attending include Bermuda College student Chakeya Ottley, who is going as part of the University Presidential Inaugural Conference, and Christa Schweizer, 22, a student at Spelman College in Atlanta, who will be there as a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.