AIRPORTS & CHARITIES
A good cause W
hen 10,500 people descended en masse on Washington Dulles, one might speculate that the airport authority had agreed to host a Presidential convention or stage a major rock concert.
The reality, however, was very different. The happy hordes who invaded
Dulles last autumn were there to watch 50 teams sweating and straining ever sinew to pull an Airbus 12 feet along the tarmac – all in a good cause. At the end of the day, it hardly mattered that a team from Cisco
Systems raised the most money ($24,112), or that the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Offi ce completed the ‘pull’ in the quickest time (5.559 seconds). The key statistics were that the day raised $110,000 for Special
Olympics Virginia, and that the event has now amassed a staggering $1.5 million over the last 19 years. Today, Washington Dulles’ annual charity ‘plane pull’ – the brainchild
of a deputy police chief back in 1992 – has metamorphosed into one of the biggest airport charity festivals in the world. Across the border in Canada, Ottawa International Airport hosted its
fi fth annual plane pull in September to help boost the funds of two charitable initiatives (Project Clear Skies and the Ottawa Senators Foundation) by $55,000 this year – $10,000 up on 2009. And Cleveland Hopkins International got in on the act in June by
challenging 22 teams to see how quickly they could haul a Boeing 737 along the tarmac. The event attracted 700 onlookers and raised $17,000 for Special Olympics Ohio, getting the airport’s 85th anniversary celebrations off to a cracking start. Plane pulls have traditionally proved popular with airport
fundraisers, but charitable projects come in all shapes and sizes. The 60 AIRPORT WORLD/FEBRUARY-MARCH 2011
Robin Stone learns more about the caring side of airports through the charities they support.
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) organised an aviation run in Singapore as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, raising $218,000 towards its Community Chest, which funds social service programmes to aid children with special needs, the disabled, the elderly and the needy.
Four thousand runners, including Transport Minister,
Raymond Lim, gathered on the starting line. CAAS Deputy-General Yap Ong Heng says: “The impressive turnout by the aviation community refl ects its commitment to work together to help the less fortunate.” Victims of warfare fall into that category, and during 2010, which commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the UK’s biggest airport supported Britain’s armed forces.
As troops continue to put their lives on the line in Afghanistan,
staff at London Heathrow chose Help for Heroes as their charity of the year. Help for Heroes raises money to support soldiers, sailors and airmen wounded in active service, with the proceeds being channelled into recovery programmes designed to help them lead fulfi lling lives. Charity initiatives are nothing new with airport workers – some
projects have been going on for many decades – and are benefi cial not only to the charities themselves, but in many instances provide a useful platform for airports to integrate themselves into the communities they serve. Heathrow’s annual charity appeal, for example – which in 2009 delivered more than €118,000 to Age Concern and Help
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