The idea entered Che Edoga’s head one night, as he turned to a television show about a group of heavyweight Romanians pulling a Boeing 747 aircraft. The next day at work, Edoga, a robotics and biology teacher at Oak Harbor High School, joked with history teacher Peter Esvelt about visions of pulling a fully-loaded semi.

Months later, on June 21, Edoga found himself harnessed to a school bus in the Oak Harbor Lutheran Church parking lot, fighting to haul about 22,000 pounds.

“Che is the kind of guy who gets a crazy idea and rolls with it,” biology teacher Cynthia Allen said.

Edoga said he was inspired by his student Leo Moreno, who was paralyzed from the shoulders down a little over a year ago as the result of a snowboarding accident.

In May, the two were looking on the Web for photos of a new wheelchair called the Ibot, developed by the makers of Segway. The robotic wheelchair can go up and down stairs and curbs, handle rough terrain and can balance on two wheels making the user almost 6 feet tall.

“I realized I had to buy it for him, it was like showing a kid a Ferrari,” Edoga said.

Teacher Tracey Tomlin, who also works with the youth group at the Oak Harbor Lutheran Church, helped him secure a school bus. They collected pledges that alloted a dollar amount for the number of feet pulled. People could also pay to sit on the bus as Edoga taxied them.

For two and a half months, he lifted weights each day at the Island Athletic Club. A self-described “smaller guy,” he said the experience was foreign.

“I’m 185 pounds and I work with computers. It’s kind of crazy.”

On May 21 the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle invited Moreno to test drive the Ibot chair for the first time. Initially, going up stairs worried the 16-year-old, but careful practice with the controls alleviated the difficulty. Next, representatives heightened the chair onto two wheels and rolled out a mirror.

“He was staring at himself, fixing his hair. It was the closest thing I’ve seen to a guy in a wheelchair strutting,” Edoga said.

Edoga posted a video of the Ibot on www.youtube.com, dubbing their event, “Pulling for People.” The video begins with Edoga’s practice pull of a Wildcat TV mini-van and an interview with Moreno.

Staring off-camera, Moreno described a friend’s recent birthday party. Edoga asked, “Was it hard to get around?”

“Well, they had to carry me in. My dad took the chair home,” he responded.

If friends have stairs leading to their house, Moreno is unable to ring the doorbell. His parents don’t like leaving him at home because if he wants to cook, he can’t reach food on the shelves, Edego said.

“Instead of people looking down at him, the wheelchair would let him see people eye to eye,” Allen said.

When the day finally came for Edoga to put months of muscle-training and mental preparation to the test, he was joined in the parking lot by Oak Harbor teachers Gary Thayer, Eric Christensen, Allen and Tomlin and Moreno’s friends and family.

But the bus wouldn’t budge.

“I had to have a push to get it started,” Edoga said, and he ended the pull at about 20 feet.

Moreno decided to strap his wheelchair to the bus harness and held the leash of a Jack Russell terrier. The bus driver aided him in inching the bus forward by stepping on the gas. Teachers and children lined up tug-of-war style to pull as well.

The group raised a little over $1,000. Edoga said the cost of the wheelchair is about $21,000 and they plan to pull the school bus again in October to burgeon funding. And Edoga wants to buy an additional chair to be donated to the Veterans Assistance Hospital for a veteran returning from the conflict in the Middle East.

“He and Leo have a great relationship, and a goofy idea like this is very typical of Che. He’s a good-natured guy,” Christensen said.