Weekend: Yard Work, Barbeque, Pull Airplane?

While most of you were tending to the yard or burning some meat on the grill this weekend…there were others who were pulling airplanes!?  The 2008 Plane Pull to benefit Special Olympics North Carolina took place Saturday. 

Here’s the deal…five-person teams competed to see who could pull an American Eagle jet the fastest.  Each team had to pull the 40,000 pound jet 25 feet on the UPS tarmac at Raleigh Durham International Airport.  What a great idea for an event and one that really sparked my interest.  I read about this last week and while I couldn’t make it to the pull, I did want to see some pictures…so here they are.

75 teams competed and raised more than $115,000!  The Credit Suisse teams raised more than $43,000 alone!  The winner of the corporate division was ResCare-Northwest and the Law Enforcement division winner was Central PERT (Prison Emergency Response Team).  These two teams had a final pull off and Central PERT won the Overall Plane Pull trophy.

Special Olympics North Carolina is a great organization that offers year-round sports training and competition for more than 38,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities.  Read more about them here.