Alyssa Cwanger , Post-Gazette Though they work at the White House, siblings Dana, 25, and Chris, 29, Edwards, keep a hand in their family's business, Chocolate Celebrations and the Milkshake Factory on the South Side, on a recent trip home. Click photo for larger image.

WASHINGTON -- In their daily routines at the White House, Pittsburgh siblings Chris and Dana Edwards traipse across the hall to one another's offices so often that their colleagues tease them about wearing out the marble.

They rarely keep secrets from one another, so it was unusual when Chris tried Dana's office door one recent afternoon and found it locked. "What are you doing in there?" he asked. He heard a frantic rustling of papers and then an uncharacteristically hostile response -- "Christian, I'm working, can't you leave me alone?"

Chris, who oversees logistics for the White House press corps, figured it out several days later when he learned in New Delhi that the president had split off from his entourage for a surprise trip to Afghanistan and that Dana, who until recently coordinated the president's trips, was one of a handful of staffers entrusted with the planning.

Chris, who is three and half years older and recently won the coveted title of "special assistant to the president," joked that he's begun questioning whether his sister has more clout at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. than he does.

It is rare to meet twenty-somethings who worked their way into the White House administration without political connections, as Chris did, and it's rarer still to meet a brother-sister combination who can work out of the same office and actually get along.

But growing up in Hampton, Chris, 29, and Dana, 25, worked together in the family's chocolate business. Their great-grandparents started the company in 1914 selling candied fruit on Pittsburgh's street corners before opening Keystone Candies -- which is now Edward Marc Chocolatier, housed in the retail shop Chocolate Celebrations on Carson Street.

As teenagers, neither considered a career in politics. There was almost an unspoken understanding that they eventually would get involved in the business. Their younger brother, Mark, recently moved to Washington to build up the company's corporate client list.

They were immersed in the business as children -- often spending after-school hours at the factory -- which gave them a chance to eat dinner with their father in the factory kitchen but only after he put them to work learning everything from the mechanics of the chocolate belt to how he kept the books.

Jellybean bagging pays off

But as a senior at Duquesne University, Chris got sidetracked when he read about the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. The management skills he had learned overseeing teams of students hired to bag jellybeans quickly translated into how to move people into action on a campaign, and he became a volunteer coordinator at Allegheny County Republican headquarters.

He continued setting up presidential events all over the country after the election as a volunteer on the president's advance team. He also began calling the Office of Protocol, which handles the president's travel abroad as well as visiting heads of state, two or three times a day, begging for a job interview.

The persistence paid off with a job offer that he fielded from the deck of an aircraft carrier in Norfolk, Va., where he was volunteering at a presidential Pearl Harbor Day event.

Dana teases that the protocol job was perfect for a guy who can't tolerate wrinkles in his suit. Even now, after 12-hour flights, Dana said, "Everyone else comes off the plane looking like a disaster, and he's got a crisp, starched shirt on with a perfect dimple in his tie."

Chris visited more than 40 cities around the globe before he moved into the world of press advance as the president faced a second campaign. About the same time, Chris persuaded Dana, who had just graduated from Palm Beach Atlantic University, to join him as an intern.

Chris' boss snapped her up for a spot in the advance office working on scheduling -- pulling her out of intern orientation to offer her the job.

For nearly two years, they worked in the same office. And as a trip coordinator for the president, Dana often knew where her brother was headed long before he did.

As Chris shepherded a traveling press corps that often topped 100 people and some 2,000 pounds of equipment through as many as four campaign stops a day, the logistics of his personal life often fell through the cracks.

He would call Dana, begging her to drop off his rent check or overnight new contact lenses to his next destination. He made up for it by returning with gifts -- such as the pearl necklace that he brought from China.

Dana became a public liaison for the president last year. She now helps design such events as "a conversation with president" on health savings accounts..

She jokes that she's working twice as hard as Chris while earning half as much. (She makes around $50,000, while is paid $95,000.)

Both display the unswerving loyalty to the administration that George and Laura Bush seem to inspire in many of their young staffers. In interviews, Chris continually tried to turn the conversation about his own family back to how the president's emphasis on family inspires him.

They say that loyalty makes it hard for them to imagine jumping into another administration, and they seem more comfortable talking about transferring what they've learned in the White House to the family business.

Dana already designed the South Side store's first expansion into a 41-flavor ice cream parlor -- The Milkshake Factory. And after meeting entrepreneurs all over the nation, the two talk about franchising the milkshake concept or creating a chocolate operation that could one day rival Godiva.

They say the military-style attention to detail at the White House was just the training they needed to run a successful business.

"There is no room for error when you're dealing with the president of the United States," Dana said.

"You have to think of every scenario that could possibly happen," Chris said. "And once you make a mistake, you need to check that mistake off and never do it again."

They kept their hand in the business operations over Easter weekend, spending their time behind the counter at Chocolate Celebrations.

Chris said his time working in the store helps bring him back to earth.

"Nobody knows that you work at the White House," he said, conceding that he has been spoiled by the perks of his job that include riding on Air Force One. "To them, you're just another guy behind the register. That really keeps it all in perspective."