A sunny, Saturday morning at the National Museum of World War II Aviation marked a first as well as a return to normal.
Special Olympics Colorado put on its first plane pull fundraising event in Colorado Springs Saturday morning as 26 teams vied for the bragging rights of being the fastest team to pull a 1930s era plane 15 feet.
“Everyone, especially our athletes, is excited to have in-person events again, obviously modified but super excited," Alexandra Vander Pol the director of events at Special Olympics Colorado said. "This is very exciting for a lot of our athletes who have typically driven up to Denver or Broomfield to pull a plane, and they can do it right here in their own backyard. They’re super pumped.”
The event's rich history dates back eight years ago when a law enforcement officer from Colorado witnessed a plane pull fundraising event at an out of state conference. The first Special Olympics Colorado plane pull was held at Denver International Airport with Signature Flight Support.
Fun day at the National Museum of World War II Aviation with a plane pull put on by @SpecOlympicsCO. Story to come on @csgazette pic.twitter.com/3Igu3nmViF
— Hugh Johnson (@HughJohnson707) September 18, 2021
The event grew to host more than 90 teams back in 2019, according to Vander Pol. That number took a dive last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Just 60 people were allowed on site at any given time at the Denver plane pull last year.
This year, Vander Pol said she expected some 350 to 400 people to visit throughout the day.
The plane pull has stayed close to its roots with six law enforcement agencies represented in the event. Thrivent, Kaiser Permanente, UPS were also represented among other teams. Five teams featured Special Olympics athletes.
Proud of our CSP Dist 2 team earning the trophy for Highest Fundraising Law Enforcement Team… $3200 for Special Olympics! pic.twitter.com/Jh3sdQVQjr
— CSP Colorado Springs (@CSP_CSprings) September 18, 2021
The event isn't just fun and games, the proceeds go toward Special Olympics Colorado which provides health screenings, leadership opportunities and year-round sports training and athletic competition for 15,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Colorado.
Vander Pol said the event raised roughly $52,000 Saturday. When combined with an event two weeks ago in Broomfield that number increases to $250,000.
One such athlete is 26-year-old Vincent Egan who competed with the Pikes Peak Wolves Saturday. It was the fifth plane pull he'd participated in.
Egan has been a health messenger and a global messenger for the Special Olympics as well as a Special Olympics Colorado Board Member. He medaled in the 2017 Special Olympics World Games in alpine skiing in Schladming, Austria. Alongside skiing, he enjoys basketball, soccer and flag football. But his favorite sport is golf and his favorite golfer is pro golfer Justin Rose.
“I love representing my own town Colorado Springs," he said. "I just love the plane pull.”
Saturday's plane was a 25,000-pound World War II-era PBY Catalina twin-engine aircraft. It was originally an amphibious vehicle, meaning it was used in the water for coastal patrols to monitor submarines or rescue people from ship wrecks or downed aircraft, said Bill Klaers president and CEO of the museum. That plane could hold up to 4,000 pounds of bombs and torpedos.
Saturday's mission was a bit more lighthearted however, and Klaers extolled the unique position the museum is in to host events like the first plane pull held in the city.
"The museum has the facility to do [this]," he said. "We have adequate parking, we have easy access ,we’ve got the security. So it’s like all of the events that we do out here. We have a really unique situation where people can do different things out here that they can’t do if you’re inside the gate of a regular airport."