O’Hare Plane Pull Raises Nearly $70,000 for Special Olympics

CHICAGO, 2012-09-17 — /travelprnews.com/ — Teams of local law enforcement agencies and the general public participated in a larger-than-life tug-of-war challenge today at O’Hare International Airport, facing off with a 90-ton UPS Airbus A300 aircraft. The Law Enforcement Torch Run Plane Pull event raised nearly $70,000 for Special Olympics Illinois.

An all-time high of 37 teams registered for the fourth annual competition at O’Hare. Teams of men and women were divided into two divisions – the Open Division and Public Safety Division. Each team of 20 pullers attempted to pull the plane a distance of 20 feet, and the top finisher from each division faced off for one final pull to determine the Grand Champion team.

The winner in the Public Safety category was the Chicago Fire Department. The winner in the Non-Public Safety category was AAA Snowbusters. The Chicago Fire Department team earned the Grand Champion title in the final pull competition with a time of 9.34 seconds.

“On behalf of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Department of Aviation, I want to thank the Law Enforcement Torch Run committee and Special Olympics Illinois for holding this spectacular event at O’Hare International Airport for the fourth consecutive year,” said Commissioner Rosemarie S. Andolino. “We are proud to continue to support Special Olympics Illinois in its mission to provide year-round sports training and competition to children and adults with intellectual disabilities.”

Special Olympics Illinois is a not-for-profit organization offering year-round training and competition for nearly 21,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities and more than 6,000 Young Athletes ages 2-7 with and without intellectual disabilities. For more information, please visit www.soill.org.

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