The Candy Drop, and the iconic plane, return to Manteo this Christmas season

By Maggie Miles | Outer Banks Voice on November 1, 2024

Karin Edmond and the late Gail Halvorsen.

Candy Drop is set for Dec. 15. (File photo Kip Tabb)

 

By Maggie Miles | Outer Banks Voice

The Outer Banks’ annual Candy Drop is set for Sunday, Dec. 15 at 12:30 p.m. and this year, after a two-year hiatus, the C-54 cargo plane which drops the Christmas-season candy for children, is returning in all its glory.

The plane, which will be available for showing at the Dare County Regional Airport the day before the event on Saturday, Dec. 14, is the remodeled original plane flown by U.S. Air Force pilot, Col. Gail Halvorsen during the Berlin Airlift, which brought food and fuel by air to millions of residents of West Berlin during the Soviet blockade following WWII.

Col. Halvorsen, who passed away in 2022 at 101 years of age, is known as the Candy Bomber, after taking it upon himself to drop candy out of his plane to the children of Berlin, inspired by a moment when he saw a group of them splitting one piece of gum.

Karin Edmond, who organizes the event each year, was one of those children. Decades later Edmond had the opportunity to meet Halversen at an airshow and they decided to do a reenactment of his candy bombing efforts in Manteo. Since 1999, the plane has been dropping candy in hundreds of parachutes through the sky and down onto the runway for the children of the Outer Banks at the Dare County Regional Airport. Halvorsen was involved with the event up until 2021 when he fell ill.

But in 2022, Tim Chopp, the president of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation and the pilot who typically flies the C-54, became ill and was hospitalized. For the past two years, he has not been able to fly the plane at the event. Determined to keep things going, Edmond shifted course and last year, had German brigadiers from Washington D.C. drop candy from the second-story balcony of the airport building. But this year, she got a call from Chopp.

“He called and said, ‘I hope you’re sitting down,’” said Edmond, recounted the call to tell her the good news that Chopp is back as the pilot. “All I could say was ‘Thank you, Jesus.’”

This year there will be around 1,000 parachutes of candy dropped, although Edmond says she always has extra candy hidden away just in case. Most of the treats are chocolate bars donated by Hershey, the first time this has occurred in the nearly 25 years Edmond has been running the event.

This year it will be done a little differently, with the children being separated by age group, after Edmond realized over the years that it was harder for the little ones to keep up with the older children to catch the parachutes. For children five-years-old and under, parachutes will be dropped from the door of the plane while on the ground. For the older children, there will be the drop from the plane as it flies above the runway. Just like every year, there will be special parachutes that can be exchanged for toys and plenty of soda and cupcakes. Santa Claus will also be in attendance.

“We are so happy,” says Edmond, to be able to return to the traditional event, explaining that it’s not just a way to bring joy to children – it’s a way to educate people on the history of one of the largest humanitarian efforts in history and to honor the men who carried out the mission. “It spells freedom,” she says.

Over the years there have been many healing interactions that Edmond has witnessed. One man came to the event who was also a child in West Berlin and got to thank Gail Halvorsen personally. Another man came to the event who had been ordered by Hitler’s army to shoot at the planes. He was nervous to come up and talk to Edmond.

“But I told him, ‘You were just a child. What were you supposed to do? You were doing what you were told. It’s not your fault,’” she says.

To learn more about the event and its history, or to support funding for the event, Edmunds will be at First Friday in Manteo on Nov. 1 at a booth representing the Candy Drop. She and her granddaughter will be selling books on the history of the Candy Bomber, coloring books from Germany, and other goods to raise money.

And with the return of the plane this year, Edmond is optimistic about turnout. “It’s going to be big,” she says.