INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Employees from Sallie Mae – the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college company – pooled their strength to pull a jumbo jet and raised $11,025 for Special Olympics Indiana in the 2015 Plane Pull® Challenge at Indianapolis International Airport. Sallie Mae employees collected $6,025 in donations from colleagues, friends, and family members, and The Sallie Mae Fund, the company’s charitable foundation, contributed an additional $5,000 for Special Olympics Indiana.
The 20 members of Team Sallie Mae wrangled the 80-ton Boeing 757 jet across 12 feet of tarmac in just 5.867 seconds, winning its corporate division. That was one of the best times recorded in the day-long annual event, in which more than 2,000 people participated.
“We are delighted Sallie Mae has expanded its involvement with Special Olympics by joining this year’s Plane Pull® Challenge,” said Scott Furnish, senior director of organizational advancement and Plane Pull® Challenge event director for Special Olympics Indiana. “We are grateful not just for their participation in this event and the funds they raised, but also for the volunteer work their employees do on our behalf throughout the year.”
Special Olympics Indiana is a not-for-profit organization that provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in more than 20 Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, reaching nearly 11,000 athletes across Indiana. It is part of the international network of accredited Special Olympics programs that reach more than 3 million athletes with intellectual disabilities worldwide. The Plane Pull® Challenge is Special Olympics Indiana’s largest single-day fundraiser; this year, the event raised more than $155,000.
“Sallie Mae supports organizations our employees are personally involved with and passionate about,” said Mike Bandy, Sallie Mae vice president and Plane Pull® Challenge team captain. “The seemingly insurmountable challenge of pulling a jumbo jet by hand is an apt metaphor for the kinds of challenges many Special Olympics athletes work hard to overcome, and we were happy to put our muscle, figuratively and literally, behind their efforts.”
With more than 120 employees, Sallie Mae’s Indianapolis office is the company’s second largest, exceeded only by its headquarters in Newark, Del. Sallie Mae is a consumer banking business focused on helping students and families save, plan, and responsibly pay for college.
The Sallie Mae Fund supports employee volunteerism and community service in communities where Sallie Mae employees live and work. Since 2001, The Fund has contributed more than $125 million in community support and programs that facilitate access to higher education. More information is available at TheSallieMaeFund.org.
Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) is the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college company. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner, Sallie Mae offers products that promote responsible personal finance, including private education loans, Upromise rewards, scholarship search, college financial planning tools, and online retail banking. Learn more at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.
