Photo shows last year’s Torch Run participants.
CULLMAN – On Tuesday, May 3, the seventh annual Cullman County Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics will take off from the Cullman County Courthouse at 9 a.m., with officers from the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office and the Cullman Police Department racing their way toward Cullman High School’s Oliver Woodard Stadium, where the Special Olympics will take place.
The Special Olympics will begin at 9:30 a.m.
The torch run will feature students Stormie Brock from Cullman City Schools and Taylor Auston from Cullman County Schools, according to Lt. Rex Sorrow with the CCSO.
Sorrow, who was instrumental in getting Cullman’s law enforcement community involved with the Special Olympics, first got involved with Special Olympics himself back in 1992, when he was working for the Oneonta Police Department.
“What started out as 10 to 15 participants now ranges in the 30s for our local run,” said Sorrow. “However, the state run will normally range from 50-60 participants.”
The CPD and CCSO will be at the Cullman Wal-Mart on Olive Street on April 29-30 from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. both days to raise money for the Special Olympics. It is the group’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
The torch run is to show enthusiasm and support for the Special Olympics athletes, as well as to bring awareness to the Special Olympics themselves. The runners are the “guardians of the flame” and carry the Special Olympics torch with them on the run, similar to the way the Olympic torch is carried before the start of the Olympic Games.
“These runs are not races and are basically a slow jog to bring awareness to Special Olympics and also to hand off the torch to one of our Special Olympic athletes,” Sorrow said.
T-shirts for this year’s torch run are available for purchase at the CPD and CCSO offices.
For more information about the torch run, check out http://qrne.ws/torchrun.
