22nd Annual Special Olympics
Plane Pull
Passaic Local 14 gets some help from the mayor to just do it
Passaic Local 14 State Delegate Moe
Farallo walked into the department wield-
ing a flyer for the Special Olympics Plane
Pull and told members, “Let’s do this.”
Local 14 member Marco Clavijo re-
sponded, “Let’s do this.”
And so they did.
And nobody did it better at the 2018
SONJ Plane Pull than Passaic Local 14.
Clavijo put the word out and 20 officers
committed to making the early-morning
time to compete. Chief Luis Guzman also
came out. And Passaic Mayor Hector Lora
grabbed the rope to join in the pulling.
In their first year as participants, Local
14 members and company completed the
pull in 7.88 seconds, less than a second
off the eventual winning time. They knew
they had accomplished what they came to
do as team members threw up their arms
in celebration and rallied around Officer
Robert Pleasant, the big man on the line
who anchored the pull.
“It felt great, especially when that plane
started moving, because this was our first
year so we didn’t know if we were even
going to be able to budge it,” Clavijo ex-
plained. “But we just started pulling and
when the plane started moving, we didn’t
stop.”
When the pull culminated, an exhaust-
ed Mayor Lora commented that every
muscle in his body was straining, and that
his motivation came from imagining the
women and men of his police department
putting forth such effort every day.
“I’m always inspired by the true heroes
of our community, our police department,
and today they demonstrated that same
team effort and collaborative manner,”
the mayor added. “When you see these
officers pulling that plane, you realize that
we have the very best, the strongest and
the most amazing and courageous indi-
viduals out there putting their lives on the
line.”
As the post-pull celebration continued,
Mayor Lora related that the effort from his
law enforcement officers merited a buck-
et of wings, at least.
“I’m definitely buying the wings,” he
confirmed. “This is a very small-scale
demonstration of what our police officers
can do. I admire them so much.”
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ OCTOBER 2018 65