Festivities for the 2007Special Olympics Kentucky State Summer Games will begin on the State Capitol steps in Frankfort on Friday,
June 1 with the Kickoff Ceremony and a press conference for the Kentucky Law Enforcement Torch Run Final Leg. The Ceremony will begin at 10 am and will include the lighting of the Special Olympics “Flame of Hope” and a short run down Capitol Avenue as the “Flame of Hope makes its way from Frankfort to Richmond, Kentucky, for the Opening Ceremonies of the Special Olympics Kentucky State Summer Games later that evening. The state’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Greg Stumbo, is expected to address the Final Leg participants at the kickoff ceremony as well.
More than 100 officers from law enforcement agencies from throughout the state, including military police from Fort Campbell, are expected to take part in the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run Final Leg. Other agencies expected to participate in this year’s Final Leg include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Daviess County Detention Center, Daviess County Sheriff’s Office, Eastern Kentucky University Campus Police, Elizabethtown Police, Georgetown Police, Kentucky Department of Corrections, Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement, Louisville Metro Police, the Office of the Attorney General, Owensboro Police, Richmond Police and the U.S. Department of Justice.
After the Kickoff Ceremony at the State Capitol, Final Leg participants will board a bus to Stewart Home School, also in Frankfort, where they will run into the main part of campus from the front gate for an 11 am ceremony with Special Olympics athletes who live at the residential facility for people with intellectual disabilities.
Following that ceremony, the Final Leg will bus to Georgetown at Noon for a short run into the Georgetown College campus, where the law enforcement volunteers will have lunch with Scott County Special Olympics athletes.
The “Flame of Hope” will finally make its way to Richmond at 2:30 pm where Final Leg participants will run from Arlington Country Club just outside the city in to Alumni Coliseum.
Finally, the Final Leg participants will escort the Olympic flame into the Ravine area on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University during the Opening Ceremonies for the Special Olympics Kentucky State Summer Games. Those Ceremonies begin at 7 pm.
In addition to carrying the “Flame of Hope” from the Capitol to the Special Olympics Games, the Law Enforcement Torch Run Final Leg serves as a celebration of the many contributions that law enforcement personnel make to Special Olympics throughout the year through their involvement in the Law Enforcement Torch Run. Law Enforcement volunteers annually raise more than $100,000 to support Special Olympics programs through their involvement in various fundraising activities. Final Leg festivities also include a dinner and an awards ceremony honoring those volunteers who have made significant contributions to promoting Special Olympics through their Torch Run service in the past year.
For information about the 2007 Kentucky Law Enforcement Torch Run Final Leg, please contact Special Olympics Kentucky Torch Run Liaison John Launius at 800-633-7403 or via e-mail at jlaunius@soky.org.
