ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Participants will soon be able to test their strength while raising money for the Upper Peninsula Honor Flight.
“Pulling for Honor” will be coming to downtown Escanaba on August 5th. The event has teams of up to 10 people attempt to pull a 75-foot FedEx Semi Truck. The fastest team to pull the truck 75 feet will be declared the winner.
While there has been good turn out for the event in prior years, the organization is hoping that more teams will be joining this year. They hope that different organizations will challenge similar organizations, or one football team will challenge another. The event has even become more challenging in recent years.
“It takes a little bit to get it going, but once it’s rolling it picks up steam,” said Scott Knauf, the president of the Upper Peninsula Honor Flight. “We had to lengthen to 75 feet, because at first I think it was only 30 feet and they were pulling it way too fast.”
The Upper Peninsula Honor Flight relies completely on donations and fundraisers to fund their two trips to Washington D.C. each year. One flight costs approximately $135,000, but the impact that the trip has for the veterans is priceless.
“We have done 21 flights so far, with a total of 1,629 veterans from across the entire Upper Peninsula, and it effects everyone differently,” said Knauf. “I get letters in the mail a week, a month, a year after someone’s flight, and I hear stories about how this one-day trip impacted their entire life.”
It costs $500 per team to participate in Pulling for Honor, and you can register here.
To find out more about the U.P. Honor Flight, click here.
