65 teams of 20, from workplaces throughout Winnipeg, signed up to pull planes on the tarmac at Red River College's Stevenson campus using a rope and a whole lot of team effort.
Brad Charach, a member of Team RBC Loves Community, has been taking part in the fundraiser for 10 years, pulling a plane in eight of them. According to him, there's a similarity between pulling a plane and fundraising.
"One or two people couldn't pull it but a team of 20 could do the task, and that's just like giving. One or two people giving a little bit is magnified when you get thousands and thousands... it's a smaller analogy of what United Way's all about," said Charach.
Teams compete for fastest time and most money raised. Campaign chair Colin Ryan says the goal this year is to raise $20.5-million, and they've raised $5.3-million already. Ryan says United Way's four priorities are: providing more mentors for kids, providing more mental health supports for youth, providing more job skills and money management training for families, and they want family resource centres open more and doing more.
"(The plane pull) is a really fun team event. You can see the excitement here... it really puts the fun in fundraising," said Ryan.
The two planes being pulled today were a Boeing 727 and a C-130 Hercules.
Sat, May 4, 12:30 PM
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