A caravan of motorcycles pulled up outside Richard Callwood Command Station early on Tuesday, but the riders weren’t local police officers arriving for work. They were members of a program called the Law Enforcement Torch Run, the largest international grassroots fundraising campaign for the Special Olympics, the international tournament for athletes with disabilities.
The group arrived on St. Thomas aboard the Celebrity Reflection cruise ship, bikes in tow, earlier that morning. Signs of Travel, a Georgia-based company that specializes in a mixture of vacation planning and fundraising, organized the trip. Tim Cheek, the company’s founder, said that a portion of the sale of each cruise ship cabin was donated to the Special Olympics of Georgia.
But the trip was also about promoting the Law Enforcement Torch Run program, which has raised more than $500 million globally for the Special Olympics since its inception in 1981 here in the territory.
Ed Christian, head of the Georgia Law Enforcement Torch Run, lead the parade of 18 motorcycles from Havensight to the VIPD station near Fort Christian, where they were given a ceremonious welcome by members of the Virgin Islands Honor Guard. Once there, Christian and his group, many of them also police officers, assisted in a brief but solemn wreath-laying ceremony to honor V.I. police officers killed in the line of duty.
Cheek said the memorial had special meaning to the group because he and others present had loved ones who were police officers that lost their lives on the job.
The mood lightened as the torch runners were given the opportunity to meet local Special Olympian Makeysha Warrell. The young athlete beamed as Christian presented her with a medal from the Georgia Law Enforcement Torch Run.
Warrell’s broad smile quickly won over the crowd, many of whom posed for photographs with her.
"This program is all about community," said Christian, who has been helping to raise funds for the Special Olympics for the last 20 years. He expressed his joy at being able to connect with fellow law enforcement agencies around the world in service of a great cause. Last year, he helped organize a similar fundraising and outreach program in Puerto Rico.
Virgin Island Special Olympics board member Archie Jenninngs, who was there to meet with the group, said that Virgin Islands officers particpated in the Torch Run program at the Special Olympics World Games in 2013, and that the program would be expanding in the territory this year.
"In March of 2015 we hope to have the first ever Torch Run here on St. Thomas," he said.
The next Special Olympic World Games will open July of this year in Los Angeles.
