Christmas with the Candy Bomber

This morning I had the wonderful opportunity of attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert in conjunction with Music and the Spoken Word, featuring Alfie Boe. When I heard Alfie Boe would be the guest this year, I knew I needed to try for tickets.
My mom and dad went to his concert when he was at BYU-Idaho and RAVED about him. That's really not my dad's thing, so I knew if he was raving about it, Alfie Boe must be pretty amazing. I put my name in the lottery, as well as my mother's and waiting. No dice.
I had friends who had tickets and were so excited to be going, but no invitation for me. Sad day. I tried not to dwell on it and really it didn't bother me too much.
Miraculously my cousin got tickets to Music and the Spoken Word and invited me to come. It may not be the full performance, but something is better than nothing. We arrived in plenty of time and waited for the performance to start. Lloyd Newell came out and told us that we would not be allowed to applaud for the first 30 minutes because of the live broadcast of music and the spoken word. He drilled it into us that no matter what we couldn't applaud. We would REALLY want to, but we couldn't applaud. NO applauding. I think we got it. Little did I know.
The concert began and it was great. Wonderful orchestra and choir. Alfie can really sing! Then came Tom Brokaw. And he began to tell the story of the Candy Bomber. I had never heard this story and I was not prepared. I'll try and sum it up, but here's a link to a news report on him.
After WWII Germany was in need of supplies and we would ship in flour. Hal Halvorsen, a pilot, noticed children watching the planes take off and land and went to chat with them. He noticed they didn't ask for candy like other children often did. He gave them two sticks of gum and then decided he would see what he could gather up from other pilots to give out. They then dropped the candy out of the airplane using handkerchiefs as parachutes. Millions of pounds of candy were dropped to the children of Germany. As the story was told, images of the planes and children were shown and then, Hal Halvorsen himself came on the stage. AND WE COULDN'T APPLAUD!
I was crying. Hard core, no makeup left, crying. I think in light of the horrific events of Friday it was an even more powerful message of hope and love. There are awful people in the world, who do awful things. But there are also wonderful people who can, and do, amazing things. The rest of the concert was great, but the Candy Bomber has given me hope in humanity and a renewed desire to do what I can for those around me.

 Thank You Hal Halvorsen and everyone who reaches out to offer what they can.

Hal Halvorsen (who is now 92 years old)