Law enforcement and Special Olympics athletes participate in torch run

The Bonners Ferry leg of the 2025 statewide Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Idaho took place on Tuesday, May 20, on the South Hill. 

The Special Olympics Idaho Law Enforcement Torch Run is held annually, with local law enforcement officers carrying the “Flame of Hope” across the state. These officers who participate are known as “guardians of the flame.” 

The mission of the run is to increase awareness and raise funds for the Special Olympics. The program began in 1981 when a Kansas police chief sought to increase awareness of Special Olympics. He also saw it as a good way to get local law enforcement personnel involved in the Special Olympics community. 

On the group's website, officials say, over the past 40-plus years, the torch run has grown into a global movement, raising over $1 billion for Special Olympics programs worldwide. 

Here in Bonners Ferry, four members of the local Special Olympics team and about 20 law enforcement officers jogged the seven-tenths of a mile from the Liberty gas station to the front lawn of the middle school where students, staff and other residents were gathered to meet the participants as they arrived with the torch.  

The Special Olympics athletes who participated are Roxanne Peterson, Sierra Hand, who was accompanied by her mother, Angela Hand and John Beck, Bonners Ferry Special Olympics team coach.