34 Oct 2003
West Berlin Candy Air Drop Will Surprise Readers
DALLAS—In a re-enactment of a true story from the Berlin Airlift of 1948, more than 600 Hershey bars will fall from the sky over Nathan Adams Elementary, 12600 Welch Road, 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3.
Since it was not possible for an actual DC-9 plane to deliver the candy, a helicopter will serve as stand in. The chopper will be loaded with 600 chocolate Hershey bars attached to handmade parachutes that were assembled by Nathan Adams reading teachers.
Students at the school have been reading the Texas Bluebonnet award-nominated book Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven. The book tells the story of a girl who waited anxiously for candy drops from Lt. Gail Halvorsen, known as the Chocolate Pilot. In the story, Halvorsen and his squadron dropped 250,000 parachutes loaded with 20 tons of chocolate candy and gum to children in West Berlin, Germany.
Monday's re-enactment will be a surprise to the students, and its intended to help them make a connection between world history and literature by integrating two subject areas of the curriculum. The idea was suggested by the school's librarian who knew of a similar re-enactment at a New York school.