Fill the World With Love

Getting ready for this trip I was told by several officers from all over the US and world that I have met through LETR(Law Enforcement Torch Run) that this trip would be an inspirational experience, they didn’t tell me that it would be a life changing one. Though we have only been here five days, these officers and athletes each with their own story of how or why they got involved in LETR or Special Olympics have truly touched my life for ever. It has been amazing to watch all the athletes come out of their “shell” and grow. It has been especially moving to me see Chris and Aaron grow as individuals from this experience. I have known Chris for several years now, he is not shy by any stretch of the imagination but I have seen a smile and strut in his step over the past few days that I have never seen before. The same can be said for Aaron, I just met him Wednesday. I saw a very confident young man who wasn’t sure about being away from home with only really knowing one person, none of us here were. He has a constant smile on his face and has a laugh that would light up any room. Sharing this experience with an athlete from Oklahoma is special but to share that as well as being a roommate to Aaron for 11 days and 10 nights has and will truly make me a better person. The simple things in life that we take for granted are such a treat to these wonderful athletes and they have touched every officer and member of the support staff for the rest of our lives.

Saturday was a travel day for the team. Half of the team left early in the morning for a flight from Spokane to Boise, Idaho. Chris and I were with the group that had to go through Portland, Oregon. We had a forty five minute lay over in Portland. I was neat to watch the peoples reaction to see anywhere from 45 to 60 people walking through an airport dressed alike being loud and clowning around like a bunch little kids. Once they figured out who we were along with what we were doing people clapped and came up to us shaking our hands as well as the athletes thanking us. The ability to make more people aware of this wonderful cause is worth every cramp in our legs, sore muscles backache from riding in a bus across Idaho and many early mornings as long as we can begin to change the perception of people one at a time of what Special Olympics is and what LETR believes so firmly in…..

Sunday was a great day!!! We started off very early from Boise with a 2 ½ hour bus ride to the east side of the state. According to the bus driver everyone on our bus was out cold for the entire ride but the last 30 minutes. We stopped at a scenic turnoff for the Snake River where a gorge drops over 300 feet to the Devils Wash Bowl. It was truly amazing site, a portion of the Snake River is very narrow through this area, there was still quiet a bit of snow on the ground. As many of you are thinking, yes cops are big kids and the snow ball fights were abundant. The athletes had the biggest smiles on their faces, especially when they hit the officers with snow balls or stuck snow down their shirts. After we traveled to Burley, Idaho where we ran a little over a mile and a quarter in the cold brisk air to a restaurant called burley that was on the banks of the Snake River where it quiet wide. The view was absolutely amazing. During the ceremony we were introduced to an optometrist who will head up the healthy eyes inative for the world games. This is where every athelete participating in the world games will have the opportunity to have his or her eyes examined as well as the opportunity to receive eye glasses if they are needed. This is done at no cost to the atheletes or their families.

We loaded up and then headed to Rupert, Idaho population 5,600. We ran a little over 1.9 miles on this run where we were greated by several members of the community. This part of Idaho is a very rual farming community that has a diverse culture which was obvious as we ran through town. I remember as we were running through the towns square and we made a circle, I saw the local tavern where two men had stepped out side and were saluting us. They were standing next to their motorcycles both of which were adorned with the American Flag and the POW/MIA flags. This man looked like your prototypical biker that man people who generally judge, but it was obvious he appreciated what the team was doing. The Ceremony was held in the Wilson Theather which was the towns original theather and movie house from the late 1800’s and is going under a massive renovation. The towns people moved into the theather to join in the celebration. The local school’s special education class treated the crowd by signing the entire song “Fill the World With Love.” I don’t think there was a dry eye in the theater when they were done. As I looked up and watch the children, they all were glowing and had smiles that would have lighted up the darkest room. The diversity of this group was an example of the diversity that Special Olympics touches. There were Hispanic, Caucasion, and American Indian in the group. This town is a very lower economic group and towns like this are the ones who benefit the most from Special Olympics by giving the atheletes and families who could not afford to participate the opportunity to. If you are not already a supporter of Special Olympics a day like yesterday would defenitly make you one. BE A FAN OF SPECIAL OLYMPICS!!!

Amazed Again

Friday was another great day, the weather was absolutely beautiful! We started off the day in Rathdrum, Idaho as small bedroom community of about 10,000 people about 25 minutes away from Coeur d’Alene. When we arrived in Rathdrum, it was clear skies and the temperature in the middle 20’s. The entire team was together today for all four towns. The run into Rathdrum was a little over 1.2 miles. It is just amazing and so inspiring to see the people in this part of the country and the outpouring of support that they are showing to the officers and athletes. We ran down the main road of Rathdrum at 8am local time when many of the residents were trying to go to work or conduct their daily business and again people are rolling down their windows in their cars, clapping, taking pictures with their cell phones, exiting their cars, business and homes to cheer on the runners. This was a re-occurring theme through the day. In Post Falls along our 1.6 mile run all of the employees from the local wal-mart joined their customers standing along side the route waving American flags, hifiving the officers and athletes as the past. The group at Wal-Mart even started chanting USA as we went by. I think every runner had chills after that and even saw a few tears being wiped away from eyes in the cold brisk air. The air was crystal clear Friday morning and you could see for ever, the mountains with their snow tips, just made me think over and over what an amazing experience this is to be a part of. In post falls we were greeted by the high school band and officers from all over the county. Post Falls is the home to Buck knives. Chris was presented with a blanket from the Post Falls Police Department. The blanket has the Post Falls patch and badge on it. From Post Falls we had a two hour drive to Lewiston, Idaho. Lewiston is name after Lewis from the Lewis and Clark expedition. As you come into Lewiston valley area, you are greeted with an amazing view, over a 2,000 foot drop. The team stopped and took photos from the bluff, which was such a treat because of how clear it was. Once in Lewiston we were greeted with the same reception for a 1.4 mile run. The town’s people lined the streets again waving American flags and cheering the runners on, once we arrived at the ceremony we were greeted by the local fire department pipe and drums. For the last stop of the day we were in Moscow, Idaho which is the home of the University of Idaho. This was an unbelievable stop. The team ran through the campus and the students lined the sidewalks cheering us on. We ran through Greek row with all of the sorority and fraternity’s members lined the street high fiving us. We then ran past the Moscow police station where an officer was killed a few years ago by a sniper. A retired Oklahoma City officer David Duke is now their Deputy Chief, he had retired before I joined the department but it was a cool to meet a fellow Oklahoma City officer and introduce Chris to him. After a ninety minute ride back to hotel we went to Cedars Floating restaurant. I had fresh Alaskan salmon that was unbelievable and Chris had the Rib eye. We are truly being shown an amazing time!!

"Every where we go, people wanna know who we are and where we come from"

All I can say is wow!!! If every day is like this we are in for a great 11 days. The title to this blog is one of the cadence that we call during our runs, it sounds impressive as it is called by the officers and athletes.

Yesterday started off at the Coeur D' Alene resort with the torch being delivered by water on Idaho State Police Boats. Once the torch arrived we had a short outside ceremony before running to the Coeur D' Alene library. As we ran to the library the sidewalks were lined with flags and school children giving high fives to the runners as we ran in a column of two. After hearing from the Idaho first Lady and several other local dignitaries as well as Special Olympics Athletes from the area we ran the torch through the town. It was an amazing site to see all of the residents of this resort town in Northern Idaho get out of their vehicles and come out of their shops to cheer the Final Leg Team on. Once we completed the run the Team separated into two groups, one to east Idaho and the other to Northern Idaho. Chris and I went to Northern Idaho, we took a two hour bus ride through the mountains to the U.S., Canadian border. At the Border we were met by members of U.S. Customs, Border Patrol, Canadian Customs, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and several other agencies. Several of the residents of the area also turned out for the ceremony. The area near the border was absolutely beautiful, I got to see a Bald Eagle in flight as it flew along side of the bus for a few minutes. To see that beautiful animal in flight with the backdrop of the mountains was truly amazing. The Customs and immigrations director for the area had special coffee cups made for all of the athletes, runners and support staff that made it to the Canadian Border. The cups have the Final Leg Logo on one side and the customs logo on the other side. After leaving the Border we went to the town of Bonner's Ferry, which is where my team leader Dave Kramer served as an officer for 30 before retiring as Chief. We started our run just outside of town and again were met by a very warm reception of residents standing on the side of the road waving small American flags as well as a local elementary school that had joined them. The ceremony in Bonner's Ferry was held in the High School Gym, where Chris spoke and did an amazing job. It was obvious that the students of the school were aware of Special Olympics and the LETR through chief Kramers work while he served his community. We then traveled to Sand Point where we had the longest run of the day, 1.6 miles during rush hour. So we for once we can say and I think the citizens would agree that a traffic slow down by this group of officers was more than okay. People were rolling down their windows, getting out of their cars and exiting business so they could hear the cadence and cheer on the runners.

Chris and I both had the honor of carrying the torch yesterday for a period of time, the excitement and pride that comes over you is just amazing. The thought of not only representing my department, our home state but all of the athletes, the 100,000 LETR officers across the world it was a truly amazing experience. We are off for another long day the buses will load all of the runners for a short drive to our first ceremony before we head to central Idaho after a two hour bus ride. Hope everyone has a great and safe day!!

Travel day and meeting the team

Chris and I made it to Idaho late this afternoon, it was an adventure to say the least. After the ice storm in Oklahoma City the past few days we were both concerned that we would make it to Idaho. We changed our flight to 6:02am on WWednesday, not leaving tell a little after 8am we missed our connection in Denver which delayed us until to the 12:20 flight to Spokane from Denver. Well as many of you know the Central and eastern parts of the U.S. have been getting hammered with bad weather. Our plane was late getting to DDenver so we were almost an hour late getting out. Many of you are probably thing oh my goodness, I would have been stressed and especially if you know how wound tight I get. I will say that is the calmest I have probably been ever traveling, Chris and I had an absolute blast hanging out and I am so thankful for the time that we spent together today. To have the care free attitude that he has and just go with a flow is just amazing. By being "stuck" as many of you will say in Denver, we got united with 15 of our fellow torch runners, which was just awesome the comradry that we shared for that 2 to 3 hours we all sat around and visited. We first met up with Kevin Story, a trooper from Nebraska that Chris just hit it off with teasing him about his football team. The three of us were then united with Amara Coon(Hawaii athlete,) Chester Kau (Hawaii officer,) June Worden(New York Trooper,) Michael Kavenius (Wyoming officer, whos parents still live in OKC,) Ron Leonard (Colorado,) Jack Harris (Vermont and Chris roomate) and several others. It was like homecoming or a class reunion. Everyone was just visiting and enjoying one an others company and made what was a long boring wait go by fast and be enjoyable.
Once we landed in Spokane, beautiful is a good enough word to describes the scenery in Eastern Washington, Western Idaho.. It is absolutely breath taking.. We were greated with warm smiles and great hugs in Idaho by old friends as well, we took a short trip to our hotel in Coure d' Alene, Idaho. It is fairly new and very nice hotel. When we arrived we checked in and then went down to get our creditinals for the week and our gear. At the end of the check out line Chris and I both received a "boot camp" style bag from Columbia sports wear with an unbelievable assortment of gear. They absolutely out did themselves with our uniforms. The team will wear black pants with either a blue and black parka or a solid black top. Everyone looked like a kid on Christmas morning walking out of the equipment room. I met my roommate for the next 10 nights just prior to getting my equipment since he arrived even later than Chris and I did. His name is Aaron Aarseth, he and Chris hit off quick, which shouldn't surprise anyone that knows Chris. They both are truly just some of the most amazing people I have ever been around!! Their smiles today while they were talking with the officers who are here from all over the world reminds you what this is all about and why we do this. "People will forget what you said to them, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget the way you made them feel." Those two smiling along with the other 8 athletes I met today just reaffirm that we are doing a good thing and more people need to stand along our sides and join this cause.
For dinner tonight we had a special treat, we went to the Coeur d' Alene Resort. The team and support staff were served salmon and steak. Both of which were amazing. The reception that we have received from Idaho is amazing and it is obvious that they are glad to have us here. I can't wait until tomorrow, Chris and I will participate in the torch arriving into Coeur d' Alene with the other team members before we split up. Chris and I will both head to the Canadian border with our teams for a ceremony with the Royal Canadian Police. We have an early morning 5:45am team breakfast so I am off to bed, hope to have a blog posted tomorrow night!!!

Packing Time

Chris and I are less than two days away from our trip to Idaho to participate in the Final Leg Torch Run for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter games. There was a great article in the parade magazine yesterday in the paper. It spotlighted the World Games and talked about the diversity of this years games. There will be over 2,400 athelets from 107 games represented in Idaho, with over 6,000 volunteers. This Winter Games will be the largest winter sporting event ever held, even larger than the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. I will attach the link at the bottom of this blog in case you are interested in reading it. The weather in Coeur d'Alene is nicer than what we have in Oklahoma City today, it is 21 degrees with a windchill of 12 with sunny skies. They are expecting light snow showers off and on for the next two days. I will try and post a blog sometime wednesday after we arrive in Coeur d'Alene.

Shawn

http://www.parade.com/news/2009/01/special-olympics-now-the-games-are-for-all-of-us.html

Hello everyone, hope you will join Chris and I for the next two weeks as we travel across the country to Idaho for the journey of a life time. We will leave Oklahoma City early on the 28th of January and return home February 8th. Chris is a Special Olympics Athlete who participates in a variety of sports in the Oklahoma games and was given the honor of being one of ten that were selected from over one hundred nominations to participate in the Final Leg of the Global Torch Run for the World Winter Games. Chris and I both currently serve as members of the state wide Law Enforcement Torch Run Committee that helps plan fundraising events across Oklahoma for Special Olympics.

Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) is the largest grass roots fundraiser for Special Olympics annualy, Oklahoma LETR raised over $250,000 last year with over $30 million raised globaly last year. I fisrt got involved helping my father when he started our departments first golf tournament in 1992 when I was 12, once I joined the department I became heavily involved in our fundraising efforts. I have assisted in planning the 2007 Internationl Conference in Oklahoma City which was attended by more that 1,000 officers from all over the world, cops-on-top of a doughnut shops, golf tournaments, polar plunges, tip a cops and many more functions. It is truely an honor to be selected to not only represnt my department but Oklahoma in the Final Leg. I hope you enjoy reading about our journey across Idaho.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run® Final Leg for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games is made up of an international team of 142 members, which includes 95 Law Enforcement Officer runners, 10 Special Olympics athletes and support personnel, who will serve as Guardians of the Flame® as they welcome and receive the “Flame of Hope” in Idaho. To symbolize the significant contribution of law enforcement and the inclusion of Special Olympics athletes in this unified Torch Run, the Final Leg Team will conduct extensive runs and ceremonies in all of the Host Town Program communities and in many other towns throughout Idaho to heighten awareness of Special Olympics and the World Games. The Final Leg Team will safely deliver the “Flame of Hope” to the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games Opening Ceremony in Nampa, Idaho on February 7th.

Here is a brief overview of where the torch has been and where we will travel:

12 November 2008	Athens, Greece (official lighting ceremony)
14-15 November 2008	Abu Dhabi & Dubai,UAE
18 November 2008	Warsaw, Poland
23-25 November 2008	San Jose, Costa Rica
7 December 2008	Johannesburg, South Africa
21 December 2008	Delhi, India
10 January 2009	Shanghai, China
13 January 2009	Miami, USA
15 January 2009	New York City, USA
24 January 2009	Los Angeles, USA
28 January – 6 February 2009	Idaho, USA (Final Leg)

29 January 2009 (Route 1): Coeur d'Alene-Eastport-Bonners Ferry-Sandpoint
29 January 2009 (Route 2): Coeur d'Alene-Wallace-Osburn-Kellogg-Pinehurst

30 January 2009 (Route 1): Rathdrum-Lewiston-Moscow-Worley
30 January 2009 (Route 2): Post Falls-Lewiston-Moscow-Worley

31 January 2009 - Travel to Boise

1 February 2009 (Route 1): Burley-Rupert

2 February 2009 (Route 1): Preston-Malad-McCammon-Pocatello-Chubbuck
2 February 2009 (Route 2): Montpeiler, Soda Springs-Inkom-Pocatello-Chubbuck
2 February 2009 (Route 3): St. Anthony-Rexburg-Rigby-IdahoFalls-Shelley-Blackfoot

3 February 2009 (Route 1): Pocatello-American Falls-Kimberly-Twin Falls-Sun Valley
3 February 2009 (Route 2): Pocatello-Shoshone-Jerome-Twin Falls–Ketchum
3 February 2009 (Route 3): Pocatello--Wendell-Gooding-Twin Falls-Ketchum

4 February 2009 (Route 1): Ketchum-Sun Valley-Glenns Ferry-Mountain Home-Boise

5 February 2009 (Route 1): Parma-Caldwell-Middleton-Star
5 February 2009 (Route 2): Emmett-Weiser-Payette-Fruitland-Ontario
5 February 2009 (Route 3): McCall-Cascade-Horseshoe Bend

6 February 2009 (Route 1): Kuna-POST-Meridian City Hall-Mt. View High School-St. Lukes West- Nampa
6 February 2009 (Route 2): South Junior High School-Hawthorne Elementary School-Timberline High School-Boise High School-Washington Elementary School-Whittier Elementary School-Nampa High School
6 February 2009 (Route 3): (additional Boise schools)
7 February 2009 Opening Ceremonies in Nampa, Idaho
8 February 2009 Travel Home