This morning (bright and early, 8am at the old airport terminal) was the annual Fed Ex Plane Pull to support Special Olympics. RW Armstrong participates every year in a big way, both in sponsorship and collecting donations. This was my first year to participate in this fun event – I started at RWA a tad too late last year.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into it. I was told it was a good time, though, and it was… even if I was out in the hot sun for nearly 6 hours! It started out kind of slow… getting set up and then playing the waiting game until it was time for our first guys’ team to pull. We claimed a big piece of real estate on the tarmac to allow
our crowd to have plenty of room to spread out. There’s plenty to keep you entertained – kiddie pools for if you get hot and, for this year at least, a source to fill up the water guns. The kids were the ones playing with the water guns for the most part… but there were a few ‘big kids’ that got into it, too.
Once it was time to pull though, that’s when it got exciting! We had three teams entered into the competition, all under the “RW Army” name – two guys teams and a girls team. Our first guys team was ‘the little guys’ and they did pretty good! I thought so, at least. Then another engineering firm came out with the motto “Beat RW Armstrong!” And they did… at least the team that had went. But finally, our ’big boy’ team got out
there and not only beat the other firm, but had the low time of the day from all teams that had participated thus far! Very cool and we were all very excited! I wish I could say the girls team got up and did just as well… but we are girls… and probably weigh less than half of what our guys’ team did. So it took us a couple of seconds longer.
There were other things going on besides the competitive plane pulling. They had a kids pull, where all the kids in the crowd got to pull. That was fun to watch. Plus, all the while, all the teams were
being scoped out for spirit and fun costumes. So all the while, we would do army cadences, and march in formations, etc. All about the army theme we had going. And after all the teams pulled, the top two from each division got a second chance to pull with as few people as possible for the ‘lowest combined weight’ pull. Teams would start out with 2 or 3 people and slowly add on till they pulled the plane the 12’, and then weigh the final participants.
In the end, the RW Army did quite well!! We won the award for the most team spirit, plus the girls team won the award for most money raised, all in thanks to Beth, who
had the most raised for an individual! But probably the most exciting was that even though our ‘big boys’ team lost the quickest pull to Westville Correctional Facility, the very last team to pull, they beat them in the lowest combined weight pull by about 50 lbs! So it all made for a very exciting day! This will definitely be an event to look forward to again next year, as well as the years to come.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into it. I was told it was a good time, though, and it was… even if I was out in the hot sun for nearly 6 hours! It started out kind of slow… getting set up and then playing the waiting game until it was time for our first guys’ team to pull. We claimed a big piece of real estate on the tarmac to allow
our crowd to have plenty of room to spread out. There’s plenty to keep you entertained – kiddie pools for if you get hot and, for this year at least, a source to fill up the water guns. The kids were the ones playing with the water guns for the most part… but there were a few ‘big kids’ that got into it, too.Once it was time to pull though, that’s when it got exciting! We had three teams entered into the competition, all under the “RW Army” name – two guys teams and a girls team. Our first guys team was ‘the little guys’ and they did pretty good! I thought so, at least. Then another engineering firm came out with the motto “Beat RW Armstrong!” And they did… at least the team that had went. But finally, our ’big boy’ team got out
there and not only beat the other firm, but had the low time of the day from all teams that had participated thus far! Very cool and we were all very excited! I wish I could say the girls team got up and did just as well… but we are girls… and probably weigh less than half of what our guys’ team did. So it took us a couple of seconds longer.There were other things going on besides the competitive plane pulling. They had a kids pull, where all the kids in the crowd got to pull. That was fun to watch. Plus, all the while, all the teams were
being scoped out for spirit and fun costumes. So all the while, we would do army cadences, and march in formations, etc. All about the army theme we had going. And after all the teams pulled, the top two from each division got a second chance to pull with as few people as possible for the ‘lowest combined weight’ pull. Teams would start out with 2 or 3 people and slowly add on till they pulled the plane the 12’, and then weigh the final participants.In the end, the RW Army did quite well!! We won the award for the most team spirit, plus the girls team won the award for most money raised, all in thanks to Beth, who
had the most raised for an individual! But probably the most exciting was that even though our ‘big boys’ team lost the quickest pull to Westville Correctional Facility, the very last team to pull, they beat them in the lowest combined weight pull by about 50 lbs! So it all made for a very exciting day! This will definitely be an event to look forward to again next year, as well as the years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment