Residents of West Hawaii looking to raise awareness about Special Olympics may join together this weekend in the 30th annual Troy Barboza Law Enforcement Torch Run.
Participants will gather at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the First Hawaiian Bank in Lanihau Center located at 74-5593 Palani Road in Kailua-Kona. Organizers are requesting donations of $30. Donors will receive a 2015 commemorative Torch Run T-shirt.
The non-competitive run and walk is named after fallen Honolulu police officer Troy Barboza, who volunteered as a Special Olympics coach and participated in the first torch run in 1985.
Denise Lindsey, area director for West Hawaii Special Olympics, has been involved in the event since the late 1990s. She said she’s witnessed first-hand how community support and awareness has increased during the past couple of decades.
“There’s definitely more awareness and support from the community,” she said. “Everybody is more knowledgeable about what the torch run is all about, which is to spread awareness of Special Olympics.”
Lindsey said all money raised in West Hawaii will stay in West Hawaii.
Her involvement is one that is both personal and professional.
“The event gives me so much gratification. The athletes have so much energy and joy and courage and happiness,” she said. “I could be having the worst day possible, but it’s the best day if I’m coaching. It brings so much joy to me.”
According to the Hawaii Special Olympics website, the event is the largest grass roots fundraising program that benefits Special Olympics since it started in 1981 by Wichita, Kan., Police Chief Richard LaMunyon.
According to the organization’s website, the idea came to him as a way to involve local law enforcement with their communities and Special Olympics by running the torch in intrastate relays that converge at their local Summer Games.
Now the global event occurs in every U.S. state and in more than 47 countries, generating $34 million annually.
Hawaii first joined the list of Special Olympics advocates in 1986 with 20 officers who carried a “Flame of Hope” from the State Capitol to the State Summer Games.
During the run’s earlier days, Special Olympics Hawaii gave the participants misprinted T-shirts that read “Law Enforcement Torch Run” and they lost $200 that first year. Since then, however, organizers are spelling the name right and have successfully raised nearly half a million dollars.
Currently, more than 2,500 law enforcement personnel from federal, military, state, county and local agencies participate in the First Hawaiian Barboza Law Enforcement Torch Run throughout the state with events on Kauai, Maui, Hawaii and Oahu.
In 2014, Hawaii raised more than $450,000. Since the beginning of the run, law enforcement officers have raised $4.3 million in Hawaii.
The 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games starts July 25 in Los Angeles and features competitions in aquatics, gymnastics, track and field, basketball, soccer and many other summer sports involving 7,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from around the world.
For more information and entry forms, call Sharon Young at 756-2186 or email sowhdenise@gmail.com.