'Candy Bomber' delights schoolchildren

[TexasStooge]

By KIMBERLY DURNAN / Dallas Web Staff

Schoolchildren tossed their heads back and threw their palms skyward as they caught chocolates parachuting to earth Monday during a re-enactment of the Berlin Airlift and tribute to the real-life Candy Bomber.

The approximately 560 students at Nathan Adams Elementary in North Dallas thought they were attending a pep rally in the schoolyard when a helicopter flew overhead and dropped 650 Hershey Bars, attached to miniature parachutes, to the ground.

The children recently learned about the Berlin Airlift when teachers read them Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven. The book details the true story of an American pilot, Lt. Gail Halvorsen, whose mission was to drop food and supplies into Berlin in 1948-49 after the region had been cut off by a Soviet land blockade.

After meeting some children in Berlin, Halvorsen offered to share two sticks of gum. Because it was not enough to go around, he promised to bring more. He eventually began dropping candy and gum from the sky.

The book focuses on a girl named Mercedes, who learned of the candy drop and went to an airfield in the hope of collecting some of the treats. But more aggressive children got the candy, and she went home empty-handed.

So Mercedes wrote to the man the kids called the Chocolate Pilot, complaining that the loud planes were disturbing her chickens and keeping them from laying eggs. She suggested he drop off some chocolate at her house near the white chickens to compensate. Halvorsen, amused by the letter, sent Mercedes some chocolate by mail, and years later the two eventually met.

When Halvorsen first dropped the candy “it was a secret because he could be court-martialed,” school librarian Marleen Allen said. “It shows how one person’s good deed can make a difference and ripple throughout history. It’s good for the kids to see that they can make a difference.”

Once a photograph of Halvorsen’s plane made the Berlin newspaper, the candy drops were officially sanctioned and dubbed “Operation Little Vittles.” Halvorson and other pilots eventually dropped 23 tons of candy.

The book is a finalist for the Texas Library Association’s Texas Bluebonnet Award, in which children vote and choose their favorite.

Allen read about a similar re-enactment in New York and took the idea to the school’s PTA, which agreed to help stage a similar event.

“It helps the kids remember the story,” said Tracey Hopper, PTA president.

Although the kids weren’t told that a helicopter would be dropping candy, they figured it out quickly. Once the chocolate started floating down, the boys and girls ran into the schoolyard to scoop it up.

“I jumped up into the air and caught it,” said 6-year-old Hanna Prieto, who clutched her prize tightly.

“My favorite is at the end of the war when Mercedes gets the candy,” said Quinton Agnew, who sprinted and then slid to nab his chocolate bar.

The Dallas drop was scaled down to 80 pounds of candy. Because of a weight limit on the helicopter, the woman selected to toss the treats had to weigh less than 150 pounds. The PTA parents paid for the helicopter and made the parachutes out of plastic tablecloths, and then the teachers tied them to the bars.

Winds sent some of the candy soaring onto the roof and toward the front of the school, but parents gathered and returned it to the kids.

Still, the sweets didn’t come all that easy. The pupils were asked to learn vocabulary words from the book, complete plot exercises and write a newspaper article, Principal Jean McGill said.

“They earned it,” she said.

[stormchazer]

Yeah the "murdering US" sure doen't get credit for that one.