Paul Iacobucci, Edward Brown and Adam Bianchi at the Genesee Country Village where they won first place in the regional National History Day competition. Photo by Melissa Iacobucci
Every year, middle and high schoolers throughout the US complete projects on historical events based on an annual theme under the auspices of the National History Day competition.
Eighth-graders in the HF-L Middle school work on these projects as part of their social studies assignments in the early part of the year and then present them to the HF-L community during the annual History Day expo. Outstanding projects then compete in the local National History Day competition and if successful locally go on to the NY state competition held in Cooperstown in May.
HF-L 8th graders responded to this year’s theme, “Breaking Barriers”, with a variety of interesting projects that focused on topics as varied as the Manhattan Project, Amelia Earhart, the study of DNA and the Wright Brothers and presented in formats including documentaries, websites, and performances.
Edward Brown, Paul Iacobucci and Adam Bianchi formed a team to explore the Berlin Airlift and present it in the form of a documentary. As explained in the beginning of their documentary “The Berlin Airlift, a humanitarian coalition to supply Berlin during a Soviet blockade, left a lasting imprint on America. It was the first large-scale effort to use military resources, and was the first to utilize planes as the main source of transport. By breaking the Russian barrier to Berlin, it established America’s politics with regards to Soviet expansion and broke a social rift between the German and American people.” In preparation for the making of the documentary, the team did a tremendous amount of research on the topic, using both primary and secondary sources, as well as personal interview held by phone or over Skype (their bibliography was over 20 pages!). These included extensive conversations with Ingrid Azvedo, who was a child in war-torn Berlin at the time of the Airlift and who has since written a book and given numerous interviews about her experiences, Mr. Ralph Dionne, who was an engineer in the US airforce and served as a crew chief during the Airlift , and Mr. Secino whose father flew planes in the Airlift and who himself served in the army and taught military history of that era.
Interestingly, the team was able to incorporate family history into their documentary. They interviewed Paul’s grandmother who grew up in postwar Germany, Edward’s grandmother who grew up under Soviet influence in communist postwar Poland, and included letters written by Edward’s grandfather to his wife when he served in the army during the postwar occupation and talked about German-American relations. The team’s hard work paid off with a first place finish at the local National History Day of competition held in March at the Genesee Country Village and an advance to the State competition in Cooperstown. With the restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic, it was unclear whether they would be able to compete at the State level, as the State competition was initially cancelled.
When the competition was moved online, the team entered their documentary and waited anxiously, knowing that the competition at the State level is intense with over 750 students participating this year. Their hard work was recognized by a 3rd place finish!
Recently the team received a congratulatory note from Col. Gail Halvorsen, who features in the documentary as the “candy bomber” who was instrumental in helping ease relations between Germans and Americans by dropping candy to hungry Berlin children and keeping up their morale. Col Halvorsen, who will be turning 100 this September wrote “I’m so grateful students like you are continuing to learn about the Berlin Airlift. There are many life lessons to learn from history, and I know you agree with me!”
Congratulations to Edward, Paul and Adam and to their teachers who supported their efforts, Mr. Zachary Clarry and Mrs Joanne Gravelle.
