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Special Olympics' flame passes through Calvert
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by CAROL HARVAT
Sara Bevard, daughter of Cpl. Bruce Bevard of the Maryland State Police Prince Frederick Barrack, holds up a sign in support of the participants of the Special Olympics' Torch Run held yesterday.
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Law enforcement officers of Calvert County cycled and ran from one end of the county to the other holding the Special Olympics torch Tuesday, leaving Solomons shortly before 10:30 a.m. and transporting it up Route 4 to Prince Frederick.
The torch was handed over from St. Mary's County law enforcement on Friday and continued on to Charles County, relaying the flame to the opening ceremonies of the 2009 Southern Maryland Summer Games held on June 4 at Towson University in Towson.
First Sgt. Bill Soper of the sheriff's office, who was the organizer of the Calvert portion of the torch run, estimated 45 to 50 runners and bikers participated in the run.
"I've done it every year since 1989," Soper said, adding that in 1989 they had four or five runners. The run was 22 miles total from Solomons to Prince Frederick.
"A runner will have the torch the whole time," he said Tuesday. Some runners will run a mile, some three miles or so, and the bikers will go the whole way, Soper said.
Office specialist for the sheriff's office Tina Jones, who also helped organize the event, said she was to be the first runner to carry the torch out of Solomons.
"It's my eighth year doing it," she said.
Commander Lt. Randy Stephens of the Maryland State Police Prince Frederick Barrack said it's his first year for Calvert, but he ran it three or four times in Charles County.
"We biked the entire way last year," said Cpl. Vladimir Bortchevsky of the sheriff's office and he planned to do the same again this year with nine other bikers.
Wife, Amy, and daughter, Sara, of Cpl. Bruce Bevard of the state police were at the start to support them.
"Go daddy," said Sara as she waved a pom-pom.
The runners were escorted by the sheriff's office's black and white patrol car and the bikers followed, finishing at Outback Steakhouse in Prince Frederick for lunch and afterwards they passed the flame on to participants from Charles County who met at the Patuxent River Bridge on Route 231.
Anyone interested in purchasing a commemorative Torch Run T-shirt for $10 may contact Tina Jones of the sheriff's office at 410-535-1600, Ext. 2477.
