by Asst. Law Enforcement Chief Jonathan Calore
As most of you know, I’m very committed to helping out Special Olympics in many ways from fundraising to raising awareness and many things in between. This year, I had the honor and pleasure of being asked to help with Final Leg Torch Run leading up to the USA Games held in Minnesota June 10-15.
As you might remember, I have been on two previous Final Legs. The first was as a runner for the USA Games in Orlando, Fla. in 2022, and the second was as a team leader for the World Winter Games in Turin, Italy in February 2025.
Final Leg Torch Run
This time, I was on the logistics team helping make everything run smoothly for all the runners and the six athletes that make up the Final Leg Team. A Final Leg typically has various runs scattered all over the respective state for the USA Games or all over the country hosting the World Games.
The runs vary in length, but most runs are two to three miles. Runs are followed by a ceremony with guest speakers, which usually includes a local politician, the local sheriff or police chief, a runner from the Final Leg Team and one of our athletes.
The job
The logistics team takes care of setting up the ceremony sites and also makes sure that everything else runs smoothly for the rest of the team members.
The whole point behind the Final Leg is to build excitement and spread awareness of the upcoming games.
We covered about 1,200 miles in Minnesota in the week that we were in the state leading up to the opening ceremony.
We escorted our delegation of athletes from our home states into the opening ceremonies, and we were part of the opening ceremony as the flame came into the stadium to light the cauldron.
It is truly a great honor to represent our agency and this great state on the national and international level, and I greatly appreciate all of the donations that have been made over the years!
