IRVING — Casey Rogers of Terrell had an amazing weekend. He's the one who pushed the button that brought down Texas Stadium.
On Monday, the sixth grader got to see the results of his powerful push, but from a very different point of view.
Casey’s life, already on a high, went higher with the chance to see from above all the destruction he did on the ground.
“I've seen the pictures, and I'm just guessing it's a big ol' hole and just a lot of particles on the ground,” he speculated.
Pilot David Snell often flies for charities, and offered to give Casey — a boy dedicated to giving to others — the view he hadn't seen.
Snell contacted Casey’s father, Russell Rogers, and offered to fly the boy over the stadium site.
Snell called it an easy invitation to make. “I thought there's no one more deserving of seeing what he blew up than the kid that did it,” he said.
Casey's essay on helping the homeless won the Kraft Foods contest that gave him the honor of pushing the button that set off the stadium implosion.
On the day after — with the dust now cleared — Casey saw the punch his finger packed.
Any 11-year-old would be excited with the implosion experience and a plane ride to see the result.
Back on the ground, Casey just called it amazing. “It's just like a circle, with an empty part in the middle," he said. "It was just awesome. It was cool.”
With his flight finished, Casey got his wings... and another lesson on the power of words, the heart and giving.
E-mail bwatson@wfaa.com
