Special Olympic athletes, officers walk side by side in Sudbury

Special Olympics athletes thanked supporters during a Sudbury torch run ahead of the Summer Games in Alberta.

Special Olympic athletes walked side by side with police officers for the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run in Sudbury on Tuesday.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run had more than 50 participants walking about a kilometre and a half, while nearby school students cheered for the athletes as they passed by.

“It was incredible to see the community support, you know, cheering us on, stopping their vehicles in the middle of the road and getting out and cheering us on,” said athlete Michael Wimbas.

“Thank you to all the family and friends supporting me for the talks, man. I’m so glad I made it all the way far,” said athlete Jaclyn Beaudoin.

“It’s … a way to get the flame from community to community and in the end, the flame makes its way to the provincial games or the national games,” said Lynne Houle, the Special Olympics’ community co-ordinator for the region.

“It’s just to showcase who we are.”

Ten athletes in the local community qualified for the Special Olympic Summer Games in Medicine Hat, Atla., this August.

The walk is another opportunity for police and athletes to support one another.

“It’s amazing because it’s now become like a family,” said Houle.

“They’re part of our family because no matter our events, we get to have police officers at any of our events, any occasion that’s going on. A lot of our actually the police enforcement are some of our coaches to now.”

“Continue to foster that relationship between law enforcement and Special Olympics athletes, it’s a special one that not a lot of people know about, but trust me, it’s beneficial to the athlete. But it’s equally or maybe more so beneficial to our enforcement members,” said a spokesperson for Special Olympics Ontario.

“Special Olympics has always been the charity of choice for the Ontario Chiefs of Police, but being a police officer and then my son getting an opportunity to participate as an athlete – it was an opportunity for (me) to connect with my son and then be with him with other athletes,” said Sgt. Steve Train of the Greater Sudbury Police Service.