From staff reports
LAKE COUNTY ? About two dozen people will take turns carrying the Special Olympics” “Flame of Hope” torch during five legs throughout the county Saturday.
Torch Run 2006 is a fundraiser to support the county”s Special Olympics programs and two of the program”s participants, Mark Powers and Cori VanEck, have raised $200, said Cathy Saderlund, Special Olympics area director. The two will be joined by about six other athletes carrying the flaming torch around Clear Lake. They are: Richie LoDolce, Megan Adkins, Jason Souza, Kathleen McCormack, Joshua Osborne and Billy Oubre.
Saderlund said most of the athletes will be participating during the final leg of more than a mile, from Natural High School to the Lake County Fairgrounds beginning at 1:30 p.m. They are all members of the Special Olympics” track and field team.
Clear Lake Area CHP officer Mary Bosserman said the final lap is the longest and is expected to be the most exciting. “People Services, who are putting on the annual Chicken-Que at the Fairgrounds, will form a runners” lane for us,” Bosserman said. Fourteen members of law enforcement and a few public members will share carrying the torch through the five legs.
The flaming torch, which Bosserman said is quite heavy, will begin its journey at 10 a.m. at the Wild West Day Parade in Upper Lake. The leg is about half a mile.
The second leg, at 11 a.m., will be in Clearlake down Lakeshore Drive from Olympic Avenue to Redbud Park, which is a distance of about a mile. The third leg, one of the shortest at about four-tenths of a mile, is down Highway 29 from Wardlaw to Perry”s Deli in Middletown.
The fourth leg, another short leg, is down Main Street in Kelseyville. It begins at Lake Community Bank and ends at Patties Petals at 12:45 p.m.
Bosserman said she will be running in at least one of the legs and she will be joined by other CHP personnel: Lt. Dane Hayward and officers Daniel Fredrick, Adam Garcia and Mike Humble. From the sheriff”s office, Lt. Cecil Brown Jr. and Lt. Dave Garzoli will be joined by deputy Gary Bussard. Bosserman said Brown is planning to do all five legs.
Others participating in carrying the torch include Tammy Gildea and her son, Daniel, a Clear Lake High School student; Konocti Conservation Camp officer Michael Tobin; Becky and Patrick Jensen; and Elizabeth MacDon.
The funds raised from the “Torch Run 2006” help provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-style sports for individuals with disabilities by giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other athletes and the community. Everyone is welcome to come see the runners at any of the five locations. For more information on the Special Olympics Torch Run, please call Saderlund, 262-1269, or Bosserman, 279-0103.
