Their first Fourth as citizens

By Martha Woodall

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Dressed in her best red-and-white outfit, 10-year-old Kelly Watson of Collegeville stood alongside 11 other children in the shady brick courtyard outside the Betsy Ross House yesterday and raised her right hand.

Kathleen A. Bausman, the section chief of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, read aloud the Oath of Allegiance, and the children who had been born in a dozen different countries on four continents promised to renounce allegiance to their homelands and "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Beaming relatives and tourists erupted in sustained applause to welcome the nation's newest citizens, ages 5 to 12.

The ceremony was part of "Let Freedom Ring" celebrations sponsored by the American Flag House and Philadelphia chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

"We are here," said Michelle Budenz, a Betsy Ross House representative, "to celebrate the enduring idea of America."

One by one, the youngsters strode to the front of the small stage to pull the clapper to ring a model of the Liberty Bell.

The program was among 50 events that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services held nationwide and overseas during the last week to make more than 6,000 candidates citizens, including 500 at the Convention Center on Wednesday.

The federal government holds special naturalization events for children from time to time. The youngsters claim their citizenship through their naturalized or adoptive parents.

Kelly, who was brought to the United States from Guatemala by her adoptive parents when she was 7 months old, said she had felt like an American citizen before. But she said she was relieved it was official and she would have the certificate to prove it.

"I had been a little nervous," said Kelly, who is going into the fifth grade and plays softball, basketball, and soccer. "Before, I didn't know what was going to happen if they found out I wasn't a citizen." Belle Roberts, 10, of Cresco, Pa., and her family were thrilled when they learned that she would become a citizen on July Fourth.

"They told us they were having this ceremony, and they picked her," said Kin Roberts, who had brought her daughter to the United States from Malaysia when Belle was 2.

Roberts, who took the oath of allegiance this year, had hoped to become naturalized herself on the nation's most historic day.

"When they interviewed me to become a citizen, I said, 'Can I sign up for the Fourth of July?' " she recalled. "They said no. For her to get it, I love it. ... It's something very special."

She and her husband, Ron, drove nearly two hours from their home, near Mount Pocono, for the ceremony.

Getting stuck in traffic between Quakertown and Center City and then getting lost in the historic district yesterday nearly prevented Lamees Ahmed, 8, from collecting her naturalization certificate.

She, her father, and two younger sisters rushed into the courtyard shortly after the ceremony concluded. Patricia Coyne, from the Flag House Chapter of the DAR, and other program officials rallied. And Lamees, who was born in Oman, was welcomed to the United States in her own ceremony.

Asked what she thought becoming an American citizen would mean for her future, Lamees said she wasn't sure. But the possibilities seemed endless.

"I can be, she said, "pretty much anything."

Contact staff writer Martha Woodall at 215-854-2789 or martha.woodall@phillynews.com.