The "Two Donegal Students Picked For Pennsylvania National History Day Award" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking at an article in the Friday, June 26 Lancaster Newspaper.  The 48 point headline read: Donegal students among top 10 national finalists.  The story was about two young Junior High School teenagers who were among the top 10 finalists for junior group documentary at this year's National History Day competition.  The Donegal School District sits along the banks of the Susquehanna River on the Eastern edge of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The entire school district, grades K-12, has just a few over 3,000 students.  And, they have two young girls, Bailey Shoaf and Sophia Watson, who are some of the best History students in the country.  Can it get any better?  Well, a few days after they were told they were among the top 10 finalists, they received another note telling them that they had placed 1st in the Junior Documentary Category at the Pennsylvania National History Day competition.  Their documentary was a titled "Flying Against the Wind: Breaking Barriers in the Golden Age of Aviation" and chronicles the life and achievement of Louise Thaden, a female aviator who held a number of altitude, distance and endurance records in the 1920s and 1930s.  

Mrs. Louise Thaden

During their research they had a chance to interview Louise Thaden's granddaughter, Terry Von Thaden.  The girls' teacher at Donegal was  Susan A. Heydt who worked with the gifted class.  What made the award special was the fact that they had to do just about everything on their own since schools were closed during the time they worked on the project due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Heydt says she watched the competition online with her two students who were very excited when their names were shown online.  As I became more interested in the newspaper story, I began searching the newspaper archives and found numerous stories from years past telling about Mrs. Louise Thaden.  One story dated Wednesday, June 4, 1930 had a headline of "29 Crack Pilots Arrive In City For 2-Day Stop."   Louise Thaden was one of those goodwill fliers who were to give a program of stunts later that day.  One of the newspaper's reporters had a chance to fly with one of the stunt pilots.  They landed at the Lancaster Airport at 2:55 PM.  But, one plane crashed against a fence surrounding the airport in landing. The pilot was uninjured and the plane was not seriously damaged.  

Setting an aviation record for speed.

I'm not quite sure if I would want to take a ride after that happened.  A photograph of Mrs. Louise Thaden was part of the story and a small paragraph told that she is one of the three women pilots who will spend two days in Lancaster with the Goodwill fliers.  Another newspaper story from Tuesday, August 23, 1932 had a large photograph of three female pilots who had set a new endurance flying record of eight days, four hours and five minutes.  Louise Thaden was in the center of the photo with another small inset at the bottom right of the story.  One final story I found of her was dated Monday, July 12, 1937.  It featured three photographs with Laura Ingalls, Louise Thnden and Ruth Nichols across the story.  The story told that all three are in line for Miss Earhart's No. 1 Rank.  Mrs. Thaden holds the speed record for woman at 197.9 miles an hour.  She beat a field of men and women in a race from New York to Los Angeles for the Bendix trophy.  She was awarded the Harmon trophy for being the outstanding woman flier of 1936.  The two Donegal students picked a great woman to research and write about for their entry in the Pennsylvania National History Day competition.  My congratulations go out to the pair for doing such a great job with their entry into the competition.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.