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Montana torch run to come through Conrad |
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Wednesday, 23 April 2008 |
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Page 1 of 2 By Buck Traxler, I-O Editor
On May 13, as it has in the past, every other year, the Montana Law Enforcement Torch Run® (LETR) will be coming through Conrad, carried by local law enforcement officers.
The mission of the LETR for Special Olympics is to raise funds for and awareness of the Special Olympics Movement worldwide.
The Special Olympic games get underway in Great Falls on May 14.
Carl Suta from the Pondera County Sheriff’s Department tells the I-O, “Special Olympics is a program that reaffirms our belief that with hope, love and dedication we can see achievement and self-worth realized by any individual.”
He goes on to add, “It is our belief that persons with intellectual disabilities, by their involvement in Special Olympics, show the community at large the true meaning of sports and a pure joy towards life.”
Suta has been involved, one way or another, with the torch run for about five years now is a torch carrier and co-coordinator for the torch run event that comes through Conrad and goes on down I-15 to Great Falls.
What is the Torch Run?
The LETR is a Special Olympics’ largest grass-roots fundraiser and public awareness vehicle, raising $20.5 million annually.
At its most basic level, officers and athletes - the Guardians of the Flame - run the Special Olympics “Flame of Hope” to the Opening Ceremonies of Special Olympics competitions. As a whole, the Torch Run encompasses a variety of fundraising vehicles such as donations or pledges for runners in the Torch Run, T-shirt or merchandise sales, corporate donations and special events.
Every two years, law enforcement officers make up a Final Leg Team that carries the “Flame of Hope” to the Opening Ceremonies of the Special Olympics World Games.
Suta touched a little on the history of the run, explaining, that the LETR began in 1981 when Wichita, Kansas Police Chief Richard LaMunyon conceived the Torch Run as a way to involve local law enforcement personnel in the community and to support Special Olympics in Kansas. After three years of successful Torch Runs in Kansas, Chief LaMunyon presented the program to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).
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