Hilliard police, Special Olympics athletes join on leg of torch run to start summer games

A. Kevin Corvo, ThisWeek
·2 min read
Matt Hayes, Hilliard police officer, and Special Olympian Aiden McCue participate in the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run on June 21 in Hilliard.
Matt Hayes, Hilliard police officer, and Special Olympian Aiden McCue participate in the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run on June 21 in Hilliard.

It was a short but meaningful journey June 21 as athletes of Hilliard’s Special Olympics team joined Hilliard police officers on one leg of the 2022 Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Ohio.

The summer games of Special Olympics Ohio were June 24-26 at the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University.

Multiple legs of the 2022 Law Enforcement Torch Run began June 20 throughout Ohio and extended through June 24, culminating with a torch lighting June 24 to launch the start of the summer games.

Among the athletes joining in the torch run between the Hilliard Municipal Building, 3800 Municipal Way, and the Hilliard Division of Police building, 5171 Northwest Pkwy., was 14-year-old Aiden McCue, a rising freshmen at Hilliard Darby High School.

It was the third summer games in which McCue competed.

“I like tennis the best (because) I like all the other boys I play tennis with,” McCue said.

Tennis, soccer, volleyball, bowling, bocce ball and track and field are the events of the summer games each year.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run began in 1981 in Wichita, Kansas, and has since grown to include police departments throughout the United States and other counties as a means to support Special Olympics athletes, according to Sandy Fent, a detective at the Springfield Police Department and southwest leg leader of the torch run for Special Olympics Ohio.

Hilliard Police Chief Michael Woods led the start of Hilliard’s leg of the torch run and other officers and athletes exchanged holding the torch on its journey from Norwich Street to Main Street, then to Avery Road and Northwest Parkway, concluding at the police department’s parking lot.

Hilliard’s leg of the torch run had raised about $43,000 through June 21 and is used to support the athlete’s travel expenses and other operating costs of Special Olympics Ohio.

Donations can still be made at ohiotorchrun.org.

kcorvo@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekCorvo

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Police, Special Olympics athletes join torch run to start summer games