Members of the South Shore Drill Team. (Credit: Bernie Tafoya/WBBM Newsradio)

CHICAGO (CBS) — A South Side drill team will be representing Chicago in this month’s Presidential Inauguration Parade in Washington D.C., and it’s looking for donations to help cover the cost.

A couple of dozen young men–the elite members of the South Shore Drill Team–practiced early this morning at the Gary Comer Youth Center on 72nd and Ingleside.

They twirled and tossed into the air wooden rifles and neon green flags.

Assistant Director Michael Borum says he was told that, out of 2,800 organizations that applied to be part of the parade, his drill team was among the relatively few that were chosen.

Borum calls that, a “great feeling.”

For more than 30 years, the South Shore Drill Team has been keeping young people off the street and away from negative elements.

Come Jan. 21, the team will be on the street that counts: Pennsylvania Avenue.

Drill team member Jeff Lovett, 22, says he’s excited.

He says his grandmother had dreamed that, if Barack Obama were re-elected president, the drill team would be invited to take part in the inaugural festivities.

“Her dream came true,” Lovett said.

Keith Massey, 22, has been with the drill team for 10 years and is excited about going to Washington. He calls it, “an honor” and a “once in a lifetime thing to do.”

The drill team is still trying to raise about $45,000 to help cover the cost of the trip to Washington, D.C.

Donations can be made by going to: www.southshoredrillteam.org.