AUBURN, Maine —
Elite Airways in Auburn hosted an “Aircraft Pulling” event on Saturday to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine.
The fundraiser event consisted of teams who compete in pulling a 31,000-pound CRJ200 Aircraft, a length 15-feet. The team that pulled the aircraft 15-feet the fastest won a trophy courtesy of Maine Awards Roguewear in Lewiston.
Auburn Mayor, Jason Levesque, was there to Emcee the event. Big Brothers Big Sisters matches, family, and co-workers of team members got to watch participating teams compete, take pictures in front of the aircraft, and take turns exploring the aircraft after the pulling event was over.
With COVID-19 pandemic restrictions finally loosening after a year of social distancing, this event gave the opportunity for Henry Morjikian, “Big,” and Jacobi Joseph, “Little,” to meet in person for the first time after 14 months of Zoom calls and sending letters.
“And it’s been tough because in the past year-and-a-half, our year-in-change, year and two months, I haven’t been able to see him because of the pandemic, but now we’re finally back together and it feels really great,” said, “Big” Henry Morjikian.
Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) is a non-profit organization that changes the lives of youth facing adversity by providing meaningful, positive relationships that ignite their potential. BBBS offers mentoring programs that pairs elementary school children, “Littles,” with caring responsible role models, “Bigs,” in one-on-one friendships, “Matches.”
“We are honored to be a part of this and we hope to make this an annual event and an annual fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters,” said Rebecca Emery, APR, public relations executive at Elite Airways. “Elite Airways is proud to be a Maine based airline, so it’s our honor to do an event like this.”
“And I’m grateful to all the businesses that have supported Big Brothers Big Sisters, and individuals, and the teams that are here today. Many people are here taking time off from their families on this beautiful day, but everybody had a really good time.” said Jennifer Cartmell, Androscoggin manager for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine.
At the end of the event, two awards were given out. Elite Airways President, John Pearsall, wanted to give out two round-trip tickets to anywhere Elite Airways flies from the jetport to the team that raised the most money for BBBS. That award was given to Mr. Boston Brands of Maine.
The second award for the fastest pull time of the CRJ200 aircraft was “tentatively” given to the Lewiston Police team with a time of 5.69 seconds because one team wasn’t there to compete.