Showing its largest support on record for the event, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office had 40 deputies and guests participate in this year’s Law Enforcement Torch Run.”Every member of the Sheriff’s Office has a strong commitment to service,” said spokesman Capt. Pat Yoes. “We have a great deal of contact with families with special needs and it is our way of raising funds for an event that the athletes look towards with tremendous pride.”
The Sheriff’s Office pulled a trailer in the Torch Run procession and offered special needs athletes an opportunity to ride and run with them, Yoes said.
The Torch Run and is the biggest fundraiser for the Louisiana Special Olympics. It’s also a longtime event for the Sheriff’s Office, which has assisted with the Special Olympics for at least 32 years, and has raised nearly $100,000 for the Special Olympics.
“While the main purpose of the Law Enforcement Torch Run is to raise funds and awareness for Special Olympics, it is actually a year-round effort for us,” Yoes said. “Within the Sheriff’s Office, we hold internal fundraisers.”
Susie Gauthier, who coordinates the event each year, said the fundraisers over the years have been many and varied. Most recently, they sold “Candygrams” for Valentine’s Day that were sold in-house that raised $808 with only employees participating. A Super Bowl pool raised another $500.
“We’ve been doing it so long that everybody knows that it’s such a great cause,” Gauthier said. “We have lots of interaction with the kids. It’s a great organization to be a part of and help raise money for.”
The Torch Run involves law enforcement agencies throughout Louisiana.
Gauthier said each agency does its run in May, bringing the torch back to the Strawberry Stadium at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, La., for the Special Olympic Summer Games opening ceremonies held May 19 – 21.
In St. Charles Parish, Olympic champions including Matthew and Joseph Guichard, twins with Down Syndrome, rode in the Sheriff’s Office trailer with a banner for the Torch Run. The two have participated since 2011.
The parish’s Torch Run begins at the corner of River Road and Ormond Boulevard, goes to Airline Highway and continues to Norco where it turns down Good Hope Street to River Road and then up Apple Street, up Fourth Street and ends at the K.C. Hall in Norco.
Sgt. Vickie Carter, who oversees the Explorers and their participation with Special Olympics, said 15 volunteers, who serve as junior police age 11 to 18, assisted with the Special Olympics.
They assist Olympic participants with practicing for events and then serving as a “unified partner” to assist them in the event, Carter said.
“It builds relationships between the Explorers and the athletes, and it teachers the Explorers about service,” she said. “I’m trying to teach them how to be a police officer, and a lot of being a police officer is serving the community.”
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