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    MTA Police Carry the Torch for Special Olmpians

    Nov. 26, 2018
    MTA administrator Ralign T. Wells, police chief John Gavrilis and eight Special Olympians join 35 MTA police officers for Special Olympics Torch Run.
    Related To: Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)

    Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) police chief John E. Gavrilis will officially receive the Special Olympics Torch from Baltimore City police commissioner Frederick H. Bealefield, III at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning at War Memorial Plaza in front of Baltimore's city hall. The event marks the first time the Maryland Transit Police have hosted their own leg of the annual Special Olympics Torch Run to raise funds for physically and mentally challenged athletes in Maryland and from around the nation. However, MTA officers have participated in the annual Polar Bear Plunge to raise funds for the special athletes in the past. Eight Special Olympians will join 35 MTA police officers as they run first from Baltimore's War Memorial Plaza to the Shot Tower Metro Station where they will board a West Bound Subway Train and travel to the Reisterstown Road Metro stop.

    Once the group arrives at the Reisterstown Metro stop, they will join a group of runners and complete the approximately 1.5 mile route to the MTA police Northwestern District station at Mt. Hope Drive. Once there, they will be met and congratulated by MTA administrator Ralign T. Wells. The run is expected to take approximately 45 minutes. It will begin and proceed from the Reisterstown Road Metro Stop, to Verdis Park Drive; south on Wabash Avenue, to Northern Parkway, right on Northern Parkway
    to Metro Drive, then a right turn onto Metro Drive, and end at Mt. Hope Drive.

    Organizers say the annual Special Olympics Torch Runs across the country raise approximately $250,000.00 annually for the Special Olympics, and have been going on for over 25 years. Thus far, MTA police have raised over $2,500.00 for the event.

    The mission of the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics is to raise funds for and
    awareness of the Special Olympics movement worldwide. Law enforcement officers from every state and more than 38 countries carry the Flame of Hope in honor of the Special Olympics athletes in their area and around the world. It is the largest grassroots fund-raiser and public awareness vehicle in the world for Special Olympics.