NHD Winners Interview Captain Turning 100

In March 2020, Ebytes reported on Upper School students sharing their award-winning National History Day project with Middle School students. After fifth graders read “A Night Divided” by Jennifer A. Nielsen, about a family who wakes up one morning separated by the Berlin Wall, they watched a documentary film entitled “Colonel Gail Halvorsen: Breaking Barriers during the Berlin Airlift” presented by Jonathan Currie '21 and Gregory Glasscock '21. The high schoolers were lucky enough to have a phone interview with Colonel Gail Halvorsen - the same Captain Gail Halvorsen who repeatedly and compassionately dropped candy to the children in West Berlin from his plane to bring some joy during the challenging time. 

This week, Nico Bottoni '21, Jonathan Currie '21, Gregory Glasscock '21, Zach Hahn '21 and Leddon Zwack '21 received first place at the state level of NHD for their documentary. They will virtually represent the school at the National contest in June. Follow this link to watch the documentary: https://youtu.be/pKOupPy8d4k

The historical connection does not end there! The fifth graders discovered that "The Candy Bomber" - as Halvorsen became known - was still alive and well. In fact, he will turn 100 in October! Students created birthday cards for Capt. Halvorsen in Google Slides and wrote letters to him about how he has inspired them and motivated them to think about others.


A special shout out also goes out to the other Chargers NHD state entrants: Shaherzad Chawdree '21 and Sofiya Idiyatullina '23.

Next year's National History Day theme is Communication in History. Get a jump start on thinking through and organizing a project with a summer program led by Middle School Teacher David Hodgson and Upper School Teacher Ron Heller.