Run keeps Special Olympics flame burning
FILE PHOTO
Area peace officers and state Department of Corrections employees will participate May 23 in the 31st annual Missouri Law Enforcement Torch Run between the Nodaway County Courthouse and the Kawasaki Motors plant near Maryville’s south city limits. The run was established in 1986 by the Missouri Police Chiefs Association and functions as an introductory event leading up to the State Summer Games, which this year will take place June 2-4 in Springfield.
About 40 peace officers, corrections personnel, Special Olympics athletes, and community members are expected to participate Tuesday, May 23, in the local leg of the 31st annual Missouri Law Enforcement Torch Run.
The run, set to begin at 9 a.m. at the Nodaway County Courthouse, raises awareness for Special Olympics, the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
Participants will jog south along Main Street until they reach the entrance to the Kawasaki Motors plant, a distance of about three miles.
The Special Olympics movement, founded in the 1960s by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, offers year-round training and competitive events to more than 4.5 million athletes in 170 countries.
In addition to the run, the Maryville event will also include a walking leg, which Torch Run coordinator James Runde of the Maryville Treatment Center said was added last year in order to give more people a chance to participate.
Established in 1986 by the Missouri Police Chiefs Association, the run, which originates in about 40 communities, functions as an introductory event leading up to the State Summer Games, which will take place June 2-4 in Springfield.
What started out as a 30-mile relay has grown to embrace a four-day trek during which approximately 1,000 runners cover nearly as many miles.
Nearly 2,000 special-needs athletes, accompanied by coaches, family members and friends, will participate in Missouri’s Summer Games, competing in such sports as swimming, track and field, and weightlifting.
Organizers say events such as the Maryville run/walk give the Missouri Special Olympics community a chance to recognize law enforcement and corrections officers for hosting fundraising events throughout the year under the Torch Run banner.
The wide variety of activities includes golf tournaments, polar plunges, motorcycle poker runs, rappelling challenges, the “World’s Largest Truck Convoy,” wear-jeans-to-work days, and “Tip-A-Cop,” during which officers wait tables at restaurants and donate their tips to Special Olympics.
Law enforcement efforts statewide raise about $2 million a year for Special Olympics, with Missouri’s North Area accounting for approximately $150,000 of that total.
There are approximately 15,000 Special Olympics athletes in Missouri, 1,100 of whom live in the North Area, which extends from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River and includes the counties of Adair, Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Caldwell, Carroll, Clark, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb, Gentry, Grundy, Harrison, Holt, Knox, Lewis, Linn, Livingston, Mercer, Nodaway, Putnam, Ray, Schuyler, Scotland, Shelby, Sullivan, and Worth.
About 60 athletes participate in Special Olympics in the Maryville area, where programs exist for both adults and Maryville R-II School District students.
In addition, a local Young Athletes Program provides training and exercise opportunities for children younger than 8 years, the minimum age for Special Olympics participation.
Anyone interested in serving as a Special Olympics coach, or in some other volunteer capacity, can call the North Area office at 816-233-6232 or email Program Director Alyssa Cress at [email protected].
