The Law Enforcement Torch Run will be held at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 5, to support the Special Olympics. It will begin with a group photo at the Sedona Cultural Park before proceeding along State Route 89A to the intersection with Northview Road.
“The Law Enforcement Torch Run started in the 80s with six police officers that began this run for Special Olympics,” said Sedona Police Department Officer Catherine Beers, the event organizer. “There’s actually still five of them surviving. I met them last year … Pre-COVID it used to be an event that happened before [the] Special Olympics summer games and each agency would run a mile- to six-mile leg event, and they would hand off the torch from agency to agency across the nation. But then COVID happened and there was no more Torch Run that went from agency to agency. So four years ago … I started hosting these … to simulate the Law Enforcement Torch Run just through [Sedona].”
SR 89A will remain open because participants will stick to the sidewalks and electronic signs will be posted to notify drivers that runners will be present.
“The public can and are encouraged to cheer on the athletes along the course,” Beers said. “The best way that people can participate is to cheer for the athletes as they go by or toot their horn if they see him or whatever. That’s the participation that we’re looking for to have people out on the road.”
“It’s a lot of my students’ favorite event of the year,” said Tiffany Wilson, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Special Education teacher and head coach of the Sedona Red Rockers Unified Athletes, the local Special Olympics team, “It’s a unique event for them to go on and get to experience, and a lot of them will [say] ‘Oh, this is my favorite event [and] I look forward to this one all year.’ For some of them it’s more exciting than competing at events.”
Wilson estimated that around 18 of her students will be participating this year. Two notable student participants are expected to be Cristofer Zeno, who is aging out of the program, and Tai Scharnhorst, who is graduating.
“They are the ones who end the torch run,” Wilson said. “They get to go and be the ones that break the banner at the end. It’s a [way] to celebrate that this is their final year with our team.”
The Red Rockers will also be competing the following day, Saturday, April 6, at Coconino High School in Flagstaff in the Mountain-North Monument Area Track and Field Competition from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“Doing this in the manner that we do it, it makes it we run along the sidewalks so that it’s more public, so that it’s viewed, so it creates an image and an impact for people to see [who] would never normally even know that it existed,” Beers said. “The biggest takeaway is that [the] Special Olympics is run off of donations, and I fundraise for [SPD]. But it would be great if other people realized that perpetually throughout the year, donations are what allows for these athletes to participate. And it’s not just here, they participate statewide, we had an athlete that went to Germany this year for the international events. So it starts small from city to city, but the dollars that we [raise] here sends these athletes all over the world.”
Beers said that she has helped raise between $20,000 and $25,000 annually over the last five years.
Donations can be made online at tinyurl.com/yc8rxfza. Beers can be contacted at CBeers@sedonaaz.gov.
