POLICE TO CARRY SPECIAL OLYMPICS TORCH

About 59 area law enforcement officers will be meeting this morning at Red Lobster restaurant in Cape Girardeau to begin one leg of the Special Olympics torch run.

The officers will meet at 8:30 a.m. to begin their 69-mile run north on Interstate 55.

Jackson Police Chief Marvin Sides said officers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Jackson Police Department, Cape Girardeau Police Department, Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and other agencies have been collecting money for months for the state Special Olympics.

Sides said the district collected $19,000 last year for the event and he expects to exceed that amount this year with T-shirt sales and other events. The state goal for funds is $353,000, he said.

The Missouri Special Olympics, which started in 1971, starts Thursday in Fort Leonard Wood and will run through Saturday morning.

Sides said Red Lobster was chosen as the starting site this year because that restaurant consistently participates in fund-raising activities. Cape Girardeau is a common starting point for this leg of the torch runs, he said.

"Red Lobster has been nice enough to have tip-a-cop for us every year," Sides said, referring to one of the fund-raisers. "It's a good place to start with the interstate to run on."

Sides said there are several different torch routes being run across the state with the runners eventually converging at Fort Leonard Wood. There is also a leg being run from Farmington to Festus.

The torch is not the only thing leaving the area for Fort Leonard Wood this week: More than 200 local Special Olympians will be making the trip Wednesday and Thursday.

Penny Blandford, southeast area director of Special Olympics, said all of the participants in the April 12 Special Olympics competition held at Abe Stuber Track and Field Complex can attend the state competition.

She said larger areas like Kansas City and St. Louis have too many regional participants and can only send their event winners to the state event.

"We're lucky in that everyone here who wants to go pretty much goes," Blandford said.

The state Special Olympics is for mentally and physically challenged individuals older than 8 years old. The competitions include track events, wheelchair races and field events.