The 16th Annual Dulles Day Family Festival and Plane Pull will be held Saturday, Sept. 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Dulles International Airport.
During the event, teams of 20 will play tug-of-war with a 157,000-pound cargo jet to see who can pull the aircraft 12 feet the fastest. The event is a fund-raiser for Special Olympics Virginia. Anyone can compete and teams of 20 are invited to register. Teams must raise a minimum of $1,000 to participate — that's $50 per person — and an award will be given to the team who raises the most money.
If pulling a plane seems just a bit beyond your reach — how about a school bus? The Kids Bus Pull pits teams of children against a big yellow school bus; the team who pulls the bus 12 feet the fastest wins. Children are invited to register — each child must raise a minimum of $10 to compete and will receive a bus pull T-shirt and participation ribbon.
The Dulles Day Family Festival and Plane Pull, presented by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, also will feature live music, a 10th annual car show, military and civilian aircraft displays, business exhibits and children's games and entertainment.
Since the first Plane Pull was held in 1992 at Dulles International Airport, Special Olympics Virginia has raised nearly $1.5 million for athletes with intellectual disabilities throughout the state and also started a worldwide plane-pulling phenomenon. Other sponsors of this year's Plane Pull include Cisco, Gordon Biersch, DMB Sports, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Symantec, NewsChannel 8, the Observer newspapers, Xerox, Jet Blue Airways, ManTech and Marriott. The festival also is a Law Enforcement Torch Run event. The Torch Run supports Special Olympics Virginia and is sponsored by Macy's and SunTrust.
For more information, to register a team, sign up to exhibit or volunteer or for sponsorship details, visit www.planepull.com or call 703-359-4301. For additional questions, contact Holly Claytor at 804-346-5544 or hclaytor@specialolympicsva.org, or Courtney Prebich at 703-417-8370 courtney.prebich@MWAA.com.