A Puyallup native attending the Air Force Academy will march in next week’s inaugural parade.

Cadet 2nd Class Ben Ausbun, a 2006 graduate of Puyallup High School, is one of 92 cadets who will participate in the festivities after President-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office. Ausbun is a junior majoring in systems engineering management. He also plays third base on the Falcons baseball team.

The cadets will march a 1.7-mile route from Capitol Hill to the White House, passing the president, congressmen, members of the cabinet and other dignitaries watching the parade from the reviewing stand. The Air Force Academy has played a part in every inaugural parade since 1957.

Ausbun’s squadron was selected based on academic and military performance.

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It's simple math: More soldiers, more children.

And that means an increased burden for Fort Lewis’ Child and Youth Services, which provides daycare and activities for children and teenagers, but relief is on the way: Post officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday for the first of 11 centers opening the next two years.

“There’s a lot of demand,” said Barbara Sporcic, Child and Youth Services division chief. “These centers are what the soldiers need.”

Construction of the newly opened Eileen Beaulieu Infant Toddler Child Development Center, located near Madigan Army Medical Center, began in 2007. Inside, four rooms help up to eight infants, many of whom were napping in cribs. Others crawled on the floor or watched in amazement as the center’s employees entertained them with toys.

The center is part of an overall building boom at Fort Lewis, which received $385 million in Congressional earmarks for new construction in the 2008 fiscal year. About 2,000 more active-duty soldiers will be stationed at Fort Lewis over the next five years, bringing the number of troops and soldiers stationed at the post to about 35,000.

Fort Lewis is already home to seven buildings that can accommodate about 1,400 children, ranging in age from infants to high school students. Some of those will be expanded soon, Sporcic said.

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