Lewis County Law Enforcement Special Olympics Torch Run Set for June 17

Jun. 8—Special Olympics athletes and members of the public will join members of local law enforcement running a 13- to 14-mile route between northern Napavine and Centralia next week to raise money and awareness for the upcoming Special Olympics.

The Torch Run is split up into 14 segments, each roughly a mile each, with the first starting at Bethel Church-Assembly of God north of Napavine and the last ending at Fort Borst Park in Centralia.

Members of local law enforcement agencies — including the Centralia Police Department, the Washington State Patrol, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office and others — who had signed up as of Monday morning have been divided into groups of two to three runners per segment, with one group set to tag in the next at the end of each segment.

"In the past, it's usually a good group of local law enforcement kind of spread throughout the county that comes and participates," said Lewis County Sheriff's Office Field Operations Bureau Chief Dustin Breen, who is one of the organizers of this year's Torch Run.

The Chehalis Tribal Police, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office and the Centralia Police Department have all been involved in planning this year's Torch Run.

For the first time in two years, athletes with the Special Olympics will walk alongside the runners for the segment that runs through North Market Street in downtown Chehalis and through the final segment that goes through downtown Centralia to Borst Park. Members of the public are also invited to sign up to run segments.

"We've been doing this since 2008 in our county and the Special Olympics Torch Run has a longer history in law enforcement prior to that, but our reason for doing this is to draw attention for these Special Olympic Games and to raise money for our local athletes who participate," Breen said.

The Washington state Spring Special Olympic Games are set to commence the afternoon following the Torch Run at venues in Tacoma and Federal Way.

Lewis County's Torch Run has taken place during the weekend of the games the last two years due to COVID-19-related restrictions that prevented Special Olympics athletes and members of the public from participating, Breen said. Relaxed restrictions allowed organizers to re-involve athletes and members of the public for this year's Torch Run — and organizers decided to move the run back to a weekday to garner the attention of businesses and employees that operate along the route, Breen said.

"This has become a big community event for each year where we can get behind these athletes again, draw attention to the games and to raise money for our local athletes to participate," said Breen.

Organizers will operate a live feed of the runners on the event's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/lewiscountyspecialolympicstorchrun, the day of the run.

Supporters are encouraged to visit the event's website, https://www.lewiscountyletr.com/, to make donations, sponsor a specific runner, sign up to be a virtual runner or sign up to run a segment themselves.

For more information on the Washington state Special Olympics, visit specialolympicswashington.org.

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