DEWITT — Signifying a cooperative effort between area law enforcement and Special Olympics New York, the 2023 Mark Kaminski Memorial Torch Run lit the way for awareness and acceptance the morning of Monday, June 26.

The 3.55-mile, mostly flat course stretched from the parking lot of the DeWitt Town Hall on Butternut Drive in East Syracuse to the Tully’s Good Times at 2943 Erie Boulevard E., where a buffet-style appreciation party with chicken tenders, pasta, salad and cookies was hosted for the group of participants. While Special Olympics athlete Johnny Renzi blew away on the bagpipes, a crowd was waiting at the entrance of that restaurant to greet the finishers with goody bags prepared by GiGi’s Playhouse, a charity that celebrates the achievements of children and adults with Down syndrome.

“When we get into view of Tully’s, you see the amount of people,” said Christopher Koeppe, the Central Region director for the torch run. “Getting here and showing yourself as interested and supportive and giving us a hug and applause and everything is really what motivates the runners. It’s seeing all that fanfare and support and the community rallying behind them.”

Koeppe said that through the humidity and mugginess that morning the runners managed to stay close to one another as a pack and keep the flame burning out in front as its guardians.

Before embarking on the route, Koeppe suggested that everyone take the ceremonial run “nice and slow” because the purpose of the event is to gain exposure for the cause instead of turning it into a race. Part of that purpose is achieved by leading the participants onto streets with high public visibility, such as Erie Boulevard, where passing drivers honked their horns or shouted encouraging words through rolled-down windows as others on the roadsides stopped to wave.

“Exposure and getting the word out is really important,” said Koeppe, a lieutenant with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office Correction Department. “It’s not just about fundraising. It’s about passing along a message and conveying that message of inclusion. We want people to say, “What are they doing and why are they doing it?”

The run, also sponsored by Coca-Cola, involved not just police officers but also individuals with intellectual disabilities, and all proceeds from donations and $25 commemorative T-shirt sales benefited Special Olympics New York. The funding also allows the nonprofit to let its athletes take part in training and competition at no cost to them or their families.

“All of our athletes compete free of cost all year round,” said Michaela Darbyshire, the associate director of development for the eight-county Central Region and the seven-county Southern Tier for Special Olympics New York. “That includes uniforms, equipment, travel, food—anything.”

Darbyshire is also the Law Enforcement Torch Run liaison tasked with helping to coordinate similar events in different New York towns and villages. She said the tradition of holding torch runs statewide and all around the country means a lot to her personally.

“Being with the athletes here is just really rejuvenating,” Darbyshire went on to say. “Seeing the partnership that they have with law enforcement and the smiles on their faces when they participate and win their medals in the sports that they compete in is truly like no feeling I’ve had before.”

This week’s torch run was also the first in DeWitt to officially be recognized as a memorial run in name.
The motivation was Mark Kaminski, a friend of Koeppe’s who worked with him at the Onondaga County Department of Correction before it melded with the county sheriff’s office.

One day at Jamesville Penitentiary back in 2013, Koeppe’s captain dropped off a letter on his desk sent by Special Olympics that called attention to a run covering the distance from Fayetteville to Camillus, the latter being Kaminski’s hometown.

“It was 17 and a half miles, and I asked, ‘Does anybody wanna do this with me?’ And Mark was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go,’” Koeppe said. “Sure enough, he ran the whole thing with me.”

Because they didn’t have a host of other takers, it was just the two of them at first, but to appeal to more people, it was decided to whittle down that 17-plus miles and originate the course at the town hall in DeWitt where people could park their vehicles with ease.

Kaminski would later pass away due to complications from diabetes on Oct. 9, 2016, the reason the run’s scheduled start time was 10:09 a.m.

“My involvement became more inspired with his passing, and I carry him with me everywhere that we do the torch run,” Koeppe said, adding that he hopes to continue the event in DeWitt for the remainder of his law enforcement career and into his retirement as long as he’s in the area.

Mark Kaminski’s brothers Joe and Steve were among those joining in on the local leg of this year’s torch run as well, and Koeppe carried a flag embroidered with Mark’s name and his end-of-watch date. Other agencies represented on June 26 included the DeWitt Police, the Town of Manlius Police Department, New York State Police, the Camillus Police Department and the Upstate University Police.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run was started in 1981 in Wichita, Kansas, and it came to New York in 1986. Other events hosted by Special Olympics New York in collaboration with law enforcement agencies have been the Polar Plunge, the mountain-hiking excursion Cops on Top, and Go For the Gold events where officers pair up with restaurant waitstaffs to raise funds.