Participants ready to roll for Special Olympics torch relay

SPECIAL SQUAD: Phil Viens (center), chairman of the 18th Annual Special Olympics Motorcycle Run that will be held Saturday and begin with a pre-event party at Grieco Collision Center in Johnston, will again have plenty of law enforcement officials who will ensure the safety of motorcyclists along the annual trek to URI’s Kingston Campus.

(Sun Rise photo by Pete Fontaine)

Johnston Sun Rise · Thursday, June 1, 2017 10:06 am

By Pete Fontaine

The Ocean State’s roads, it’s safe to say, will belong to Special Olympics Rhode Island (SORI) this weekend.

Tomorrow, in fact, police from all over the state as well as firefighters, state troopers, correctional officers and even FBI officials from across the state will relay the Special Olympics R.I. Flames of Hope for the SORI State Summer Games opening ceremonies.

Gerri Walter, director of marketing and communications for SORI, said the annual Torch Relay will cover 120 miles over five different legs and will converge on the University of Rhode Island’s Meade Stadium where the annual Summer Games will be staged.

She said the annual Torch Run is scheduled to arrive in Kingston at 8:45 p.m. and participants will carry the Flames of Hope for the lighting of the cauldron to officially open the 2017, a noted rite of spring. The always inspiring SORI Summer Games will feature 1,500 special Olympians from all over the state.

For those who’d like to view the colorful Torch Run, the event will begin at 10 a.m. in Woonsocket and continue along a route under police protection until the estimated 350 participants reach URI’s Kingston Campus. The official route can be found on specialolympicsri.org.

Walter also noted that 40 police and fire departments in Rhode Island along with other law enforcement agencies are hoping to surpass last year’s Torch Run fund-raising total of $260,000.

“This year’s goal has been set at $275,000,” Walter said. “Please remember that the event is not a road race, it is a series of torch relays with the passing of the Flames of Hope.”

Walter also announced that another special event, the 18th Annual SORI Motorcycle Run, will take up many Rhode Island roads Saturday once it leaves Grieco Collision Center that’s located at 181 Putnam Pike in Johnston at 7 p.m.

The annual motorcycle run, which was founded back in 1999 by then Johnston Police patrolman Phil Viens, took in approximately $30,000 in 2016 and organizers are hoping to surpass that total Saturday.

Viens, meanwhile, said the motorcycle run would feature 1,000 or so motorcycle enthusiasts from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

“The pre-run party is always a spectacle,” Viens said while answering another telephone call inside Scituate Liquors – which is again a sponsor for Saturday’s motorcycle run – regarding the actual route motorcycles will follow before winding up at URI’s Kingston Campus for the SORI Summer Games.

He said the pre-run party will again feature a variety of music and free food that has been donated especially for the SORI Motorcycle event that will run from 4 to 7 p.m. Then the words “Kick Stands Up” will come out of a mobile sound system and the sounds of motorcycles will fill the air and bikers will head up Route 44 and turn onto 295 South for the first miles of Saturday’s run.

Like the Torch Run, the Motorcycle Ruin will be under complete police protection and even feature a number of old time police vehicles from as far away at New York helping to raise revenue for SORI.

Entry fee is $30 per rider and includes the pre-party food as well as an exclusively designed T-shirt. People who’d like more information or advance registration should all Views at 929-0903 or Mario Mennella at 633-4595.