VOA常速英语:华盛顿杜勒斯机场慈善飞机拉力赛吸引数千人

Hundreds of people gathered on the tarmac of Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia to test their strength against a passenger plane. The unlikely tug of war is an annual fundraising event for the Virginia Special Olympics. The goal is to see how fast each team can pull a Boeing 757 about 7 meters. The fastest team wins.“We’ve built the road for plane pulls since 1992. We started 27th year. We were the very first plane pull in the world.” The Virginia Special Olympics supports differently abled athletes from around the state and helps them train. Everyone helped as they could, even members of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department, who couldn’t leave work to compete when making sure to do their part.

“They’ll be probably 12 to 15,000 people on the tarmac today participating or enjoying the festivals, 415 thousand dollars is the announced amount today, but that number will probably grow a little bit as we go through the day because we have a lot of on-site activities that will generate some revenue. All of that money goes to support our 25,000 Special Olympics athletes all over the state of Virginia.”More than 70 teams took part in the competition, people of all backgrounds and ages from bankers and teachers to carpenters and cadets.
“This is a really great experience, my first time, it feels rewarding to be helping for a cause, doing this, so I, and, also being here with my team, so I am, I’m having a blast.”“It’s amazing, I never done anything like this, it was so cool, usually fan, teamwork, camaraderie, you had to work together to get this done.”Together with other teams, a team made up mostly with Paralympians took part in the competition, helping others poor. Danny Morales is an experienced sportsman, so this task was nothing out of the ordinary for him.“So, this is amazing, this is really, really cool, give me a pull to play one ten seconds, one eight seconds, so I’m feeling good, feeling invincible, you know, invincible.” In 2018, the event helped to raise over two million dollars. So this year, hopes are high.