Local law enforcement participate in Special Olympics torch run

Aug. 26—Local law enforcement, city officials, volunteers and a member of the Junction City Pacesetters Special Olympics team ran through Junction CityAug. 25 with the Special Olympics torch.

Pacesetters Coach John Hagarty said he appreciated the support.

"It means that I have the community — the law enforcement community and the (civilian) community — behind us," he said.

Hagarty said the community had supported the Pacesetters for the entire time the local Special Olympics team — which was founded in the 1980s — has existed.

Hagarty has taken part in the torch run for decades, starting back when he was working in law enforcement in the late 1980s and then after he joined the team as an assistant coach in 1996.

He said as soon as COVID-19 has decreased sufficiently, the team — which consists of about 35 different people with a variety of disabilities — will start competing regularly again.

Many team members have risk factors and not all of them have been able to be vaccinated.

Because of COVID-19, only one Pacesetters member was able to attend the torch run Wednesday afternoon.

Jose Duarte joined the team about six months ago.

"I was trying to find something for me to do — like to get out of the house," he said.

Hagarty approached him and his family about doing Special Olympics and Duarte decided to start with the Pacesetters.

He said he can run, lift weights and bowls with the team.

He said he decided to take part in the torch run because he wanted to help out.

Several city officials also wanted to help out the cause.

Junction City Finance Director Lindsay Miller took part in the torch run, which stretched about three miles.

"I wanted to be a part of the community event and of course (support) the cause," she said. "It was really awesome."

City Attorney Britain Stites also took part in the torch run to support local Special Olympians and the city's law enforcement officers. It was his first time participating in the event.

"I would have tried it last year, but it didn't happen," he said. "Also in the last two years I've gotten more into running. Not great, but I finished — that's the important thing."

Stites he felt good about taking part in the run.

"It's a good community thing," he said. "We brought together all our city and local municipal governments together support this great cause, so you see all of us out here together regardless of anything else that goes on, supporting our community and supporting our (Special) Olympians."

Junction City Police Chief John Lamb, Grandview Plaza Police Chief Shawn Peirano and Geary County Sheriff's Office Compliance Officer Donna Richardson all took part in the torch run.

Lamb said he felt the law enforcement officers from the three participating agencies were "excited" to have taken part in the local torch run, which raised money and awareness for the Pacesetters.

"I know with the Sheriff's Office and Grandview Plaza Police Department, we were really excited we were able to come together for this event," he said.

More law enforcement officers showed up to the Junction City run than to the Riley County one, despite the fact that it was extremely hot outside during the run.

They coped with it "one step at a time," Peirano said. "We had plenty of support vehicles, we had the gator, we had the bicycles. They were monitoring everybody. We had plenty of water, Gatorade ... There were some times that people walked, ran, walked, ran and we had some avid runners and so they wanted to run the whole way. We tried to stay together as a group, but it was definitely a hot day — one for the books."

"I think we all supported each other to get each other through," Richardson said.

Peirano said he hoped to see more community involvement in the run next year.

"It's our event but we welcome the community and that partnership's what we strive for," he said.

Junction City Police Lt. Matt Paquette organized the torch run.

"We've been doing it for a lot of years and with Chief (John) Lamb's support it's made things so much easier to help motivate everybody to come out here," he said. "This is the biggest turnout we've had that I know of to date and I hope it just keeps going like this."

Paquette said it was great to be back after COVID-19 canceled the 2020 torch run.

"It feels better to kind of get out there and show our support to the Special Olympics and do what we can," he said.

Paquette took the torch run over from Hagarty after the latter retired from the JCPD several years ago.

"You grow to know the kids and you just really enjoy that interaction and doing your part to help things out," Paquette said.

Students from Washington Elementary School came out to show their support as participants ran past their school, he said.

"It was really nice to see all that," Paquette said.

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