{"id":17420,"date":"2017-05-31T12:21:27","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17420"},"modified":"2017-05-31T12:21:27","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:21:27","slug":"york-regional-police-run-for-special-olympics-in-memory-of-detective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/york-regional-police-run-for-special-olympics-in-memory-of-detective\/","title":{"rendered":"York Regional Police run for Special Olympics in memory of detective"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

The York Regional Police are ensuring one of their own\u2019s passion for the Special Olympics lives on forever.
\nRob Plunkett, a strong ambassador for the Special Olympics in life, lives on in death through the annual Race for Plunkett, held Wednesday at Riverwalk Commons in Newmarket.
\n\u201cRob Plunkett\u2019s passion for Special Olympics, and his leadership, has always motivated members of our police service and the community to get involved,\u201d said Thomas Carrique, York Regional Police deputy chief. \u201cThis event is a testament to Rob\u2019s legacy, as both a person and a police officer.\u201d
\nThough the torch run by law enforcement was celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year, it was the ninth to be named in honour of Plunkett, who served as chair of the 2000 Special Olympics Spring Games in York Region.
\nPlunkett was the victim of a botched car theft in August of 2007. After his death, two other York Region officers stepped in to take on his role as the coordinator of the torch run, which now accepts citizens outside of law enforcement and draws hundreds of participants each year.
\nA gold medalist at the Canadian Police Olympics and the \u201cToughest Cop Alive\u201d contest, his love for sports fueled his passion to get as many people as possible into the game.
\n\u201cRob was committed to helping people be the best that they could be,\u201d said Carrique. \u201cHe is really a shining example for all of us.\u201d
\nThe event, which begins in the Commons and follows routes of both five and ten-kilometres, raised over $30,000, all of which goes to the Special Olympics program.
\nOver the past three years, the event alone has raised over $90,000 for Special Olympics.
\nBoth the 2013 Summer Games Legacy Fund and YRP Association donated $2,500 to the cause. The Lang family were the highest team fundraisers, bringing in over $2,700, while the highest individual total went to Michelle Paddison.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s great to see so many people dedicated to such a cause,\u201d said Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen. \u201cThere are many things you can be doing on a Wednesday, but the fact that all of these people are here today making a positive difference in the lives of others is something everyone should be proud of.\u201d
\nAs is tradition, prior to the run, members of Special Olympics Ontario carried the torch across the grounds of the Commons to the podium before reciting the Special Olympics motto: \u201cLet me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.\u201d
\nRegistration fees and donations to the event went directly to supporting athletes living with intellectual disabilities, helping cover the cost of transportation, programming, uniforms, and more<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The York Regional Police are ensuring one of their own\u2019s passion for the Special Olympics lives on forever.
\nRob Plunkett, a strong…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-06-01-09.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4wY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 02:47:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}