The Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) provides awareness, encouragement, and funds to Special Olympics; while giving the law enforcement community excellent PR opportunities, rewarding volunteer work, and an effective community policing tool.

2008 Events Calendar

August 8 - August Tournament Torch Run, Amherst PD to UMass Amherst and Opening Ceremonies of 2008 August Tournament
Leg Leader: Lt. Bob O’Connor, Amherst Police Department, 413-259-3208, o'connorR (at) amherstma.gov

Forms and info: Event Basics | Cover Letter | Intent to Participate | Torch Run Flyer

Approximately 3 mile run. Buses will leave the finish line at UMass Amherst at 6:30 PM. Run to start at 7:30PM from Amherst PD. Runners are encouraged to park at finish line. Social event to take place afterwards. More details to follow.

Sign up to award medals during August Tournament. Click here to register to volunteer and note in the comments that you are a law enforcement official for medal duty.

September 13 - Ride with the Champions: 62, 20 and 12 mile bike ride through scenic North Shore. LETR division - $25 registration fee and $300 fundraising minimum. Families welcome.

September 20 - World’s Largest Truck Convoy: Location TBD: We need a committee to help support this event – find out more about this event here.

First weekend in December - Jolly Jaunt: 7 locations in Massachusetts, LETR Division

Summer Torch Run Recap:

Thank you all for the enormous contributions you each made in making the Summer Season of the 2008 LETR a complete success. The Torch Run activities that took place leading up to and at the 2008 Summer Games were spectacular.

-Plymouth County Leg – (2nd year and going strong) led by Liisa-Budge Johnson/Pat Lee/Bob McConnell raised $1171.00 and featured about 40 runners.

-Attleboro Leg (first ever!!), led by Chief Pierce/Arnie Larson/Larry Crosman/Chief Clark and supported heavily by the FOP raised $2712.00 and on one of the hottest days of the year, this 8 mile run still included 30 or so runners.

- Essex County Leg (2nd year and smooth!), led by Chief DiGianvittorio/Moe Pratt raised $6232.39. The 80+ person run featured police chiefs from many neighboring towns, Sheriff Frank Cousins, many local officers and recruits from Essex County Sheriffs Department, and students from local high schools.

- Barnstable County Leg, (2nd year) led by Richard Tavares raised $7655 with more coming in. We made some great new friends in Provincetown PD who raised over $4000 by selling distance markers in P-town alone! The torch made its way down all 67 miles of the Cape and almost every town on the Cape had representation from law enforcement with just over 100 runners in total.

- Suffolk County Leg, led by Joanne Russell, US Department of Labor and Tom Fleming, Lowell Police Department was spectacular with over 225 runners and $3304 raised. The runners included Boston PD, Lowell Police Academy, MBTA academy, Federal Agencies, Suffolk County Sheriffs Department, Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department, law enforcement runners from Amherst, Easton and many other cities and towns, and even 18 officers from around the country from a PERF class. $1654 was raised at the event, $1650 was raised from a paintball tournament led by Joanne Russell in April as a Final Leg fundraiser, and more is expected in.

- Cruiser Convoy 2008 (First and amazingly successful for a first-time event) was an absolutely incredible event, raising $8,000 for local Special Olympics athletes. Exactly 99 law enforcement vehicles showed up on Sunday of Summer Games in the pouring rain. Those 99 cars carried about 150 uniformed officers who shook hands, awarded medals, and high-fived their hearts out despite the rained out track and field events and closed-down pool. Thank you to the Massachusetts Police Association for the full page ad in the Sentinal which helped enormously to spread the word, and to the Massachusetts State Police for providing donated escorts for all the convoys! It was truly special and everyone has said they want to come back next year. The donated BBQ served by Boston Firefighters was delicious and they’ll be back next year too.

- Thank you to the Silver Medal Convoy Sponsors:

Adamson Industries and Phil Richards Insurance

MVP Participant: Boston Police Department

Click here for a listing some of the many press hits these events received.

A Special Thank you to the following for your significant contributions to the Summer Games Torch Run:

Frito-Lay Wilmington	Bianco &Sons Italian Sausage	Café Nicholas
Roche Brothers Randolph	Chief James Digianvittorio	Middleton Police Department
Maurice Pratt	Essex County Sheriff’s Department	Chief Richard Pierce
Attleboro Police Department	LETR Executive Council	Colonel Mark Delaney of Massachusetts State Police
Lieutenant Lint of Massachusetts State Police	Deputy Superintendent Kelley McCormick of Boston Police Department	Joanne Russell-Gomez
Massachusetts Police Association	Market Basket Middleton	Golf Country Middleton
Fox4Paintball	Lowell Police Academy	Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department
Provincetown Police Department	Middlesex Sheriff’s Department	Suffolk County Sheriffs Department and Honor Guard
Boston College	Essex County Sheriffs Department	John Evon and Hampden County Sheriffs Department
Richard Tavares of Bourne Police Department	Boston University Police Department	Joe Carmichael and Muzi Ford
Jay Johnson	Boston Firefighters Union	Adam Kwan of Eason Police Department
	Massachusetts Fraternal Order of Police
and many more who contributed countless time and energy to carry the Flame of Hope for Special Olympics Massachusetts athletes.

• Start a run and charge Run Registration Fees (anywhere from $10 to $50 per runner, includes tshirt)
• Collect Pledges (provide runners with pledge forms and ask to solicit pledges)
• Sell Merchandise (i.e.sell t-shirts/hats/pins/paper torches)
• Sell Distance Markers/Adopt a Mile (sell them for $125 to $150 each to businesses along the run route)
• Selling Posters for $25 each to businesses along the route that say “The Torch for Special Olympics will be passing by here at X time on X date”
• Fundraising Scratch Cards. Each participant takes a scratch card with 45 dots on it. They ask people to scratch off dots and uncover a suggested donation amount ($0 to $5). Once all the dots are scratched off, the torch runner has raised $100!
• Sponsorships (companies interested in law enforcement business)
• Online Fundraising - Set up a free personal fundraising webpage today!
• Special Events (Tip-A-Cop, Cops on Top, Jail N Bail, spaghetti dinner, golf tournament, etc.). Tip-A-Cop is especially popular in LETR culture – we approach a local restaurant and ask if law enforcement officials can shadow the wait-staff for an evening and collect “tips” for Special Olympics.
  

Contact Lauren at 978-774-1501 x 227 if you are interested in exploring any of these ideas, or you would like to start a fundraiser in your department! 

SOMA State Headquarters:
LETR Liaison, Lauren Fredette 978-774-1501 x 227

Local SOMA offices:
South/Cape: Jay O’Brien -- 508-821-3635
West: Heather White  -- 413-747-8946
Boston/North: Sean Canty -- 781-599-5817

• This largest grassroots fundraising program benefiting Special Olympics began in 1981 when Wichita, Kansas Police Chief Richard LaMunyon saw an urgent need to raise funds for and increase awareness of Special Olympics.


• The idea for the Torch Run was to provide local law enforcement officers with an opportunity to volunteer with Special Olympics in the communities where the officers lived and worked.


• After three years of successful runs in Kansas, Chief LaMunyon presented his idea to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which endorsed Special Olympics as its official charity through the Torch Run. Today, all 50 states and over 40 countries have their own versions of the Torch Run.