A Kent County Sheriff's Deputy is taking his love for running to the next level. The volunteer Traffic Squad Deputy is set to run five marathons in five days across the state of Michigan.
An act of kindness that many say goes above and beyond, and is a little shocking.
“To begin with it’s a little crazy,” says Sgt. Joel Roon, Kent County Sheriff Department.
His colleagues may say it's crazy, but Matt Garbarino says he's up for the challenge. Running from the fallen officer memorial in Pontiac to a memorial at the Ottawa County Sheriff Office, a full 160 miles, for a great cause.
“I’m a big runner and participate in a lot of races locally and some of the ones… I have run with a thin blue line flag in those events and it’s just raised a lot of conversation about what does that flag mean and what does it represent,” says Garbarino.
Starting June 4 the volunteer traffic deputy will run across Michigan raising money to support the families of fallen officers through the charity: Concern of Police Survivors or C.O.P.S.
A run that Kent County says they're proud to have Garbarino do.
“We’re really proud to support Deputy Garbarino in his efforts here. The dangers of law enforcement are often bought into light when an officer is killed in the line of duty. So we think it’s important to support Matt as he brings awareness to this issue,” says Roon.
Though Garabarino's run may be a huge feat, it's one that he says he hope will raise awareness and funds.
“So this run is a solo run, so even though I’m the only one running it my hope is that, number one it raises awareness to those that have lost their lives in the line of duty and honor those but what I like to see people do is understand what kind of efforts are made to support those families after the fact,” says Garbarino.
Again, the run will kick off June 4. You can help out by donating to the KCSO GoFund me pageor buying a T-Shirt at http://relentlessdefender.com/ram-100-proceeds-donated/.
