Special Olympics Of Rhode Island Come To Kingston

Mother nature was graceful Friday as over 1,000 motorcycles rolled into town, and with them came an amazing group of athletes, 1,348 men, women, boys and girls ranging from ages eight to seventy-five competing in swimming, track and field, and weight-lifting.

Firefighters, police officers as well as Rhode Island Corrections officers and the Rhode Island State police kicked off the weekend with a bang.

Early Friday morning 35 of Rhode Island’s law-enforcement and firefighting departments took off on a 120 mile journey across Rhode Island all with a common goal to raise awareness for the Special Olympics of Rhode Island as well as $200,000.

Woonsocket and Gloucester started the morning off at 10:00 a.m. by running to the statehouse, where URI officer Braden Maslyn (cyclist) started his journey towards South County.

Rt. 1 and Rt. 138 was the meeting ground where officers from South Kingstown, Westerly and Charlestown joined the rest of the runners and bikers for the five-mile stretch down Mooresfield Road to the University of Rhode Island’s Meade Stadium for opening ceremonies.

Residents from throughout the state convened in Kingston - walking the grounds of the University, enjoying the ceremonies, ogling at the thousand plus motorcycles and marveling at the fireworks. No matter where you looked, smiles and happiness radiated from the Olympians.

Narragansett’s own Normand Marsh, a graduate of Narragansett High School in 2008, said, “I love doing this and next year I hope to do more.” Marsh took the gold medal in bench press with two hundred and thirty one pound press.