“It’s a beautiful day,” Ternyila said. “They did the same thing for Megan last year — it’s just fantastic.”
While waiting for the runners, Megan was accompanied by high school volunteers in Monroe Township High School’s Falcon Pals program.
Christian Corbisiero, a senior at Monroe Township High School, said Falcon Pals spend a great deal of time in school settings with students who have special needs.
“We’re in gym class with Megan and a few other kids,” he said. “We’ve been working with them part of junior year and all of senior year.”
Virginia Ulrich, a special education paraprofessional in Monroe, said Falcon Pals are thoroughly vetted before being accepted into the program.
“They’re just exemplary — the entire group,” she said. “I can only speak highly of them.”
Ulrich added that the torch run is just one of many programs for which the Falcon Pals volunteer.
Volunteer Adam Mayo, a seventhgrader, said everyone was eager to cheer Megan on.
“The first thing we did was come to the cafeteria to get ready and support Megan,” Mayo said, adding that his father was the officer driving Megan alongside the torch run.
Sixth-grader Matt Pascal said he is proud of the volunteers.
“I think it’s a great thing we did for people with special needs,” he said. “I think it raised awareness throughout other counties.”
Seventh-grader Jenny Zimmermann said supporting Special Olympics New Jersey is important to her classmates.
“I think it really meant a lot to the special needs kids to know that all of these people are running for them,” she said. “It’s a really good cause.”
Ulrich praised all the volunteers’ efforts and thanked them for being a friend to their schoolmates with special needs.
“For the kids here, it means so much to have their peers help them,” she said.
The Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics New Jersey began in 1984 and was conceived to raise funds and public awareness for the Special Olympics New Jersey.
The course ran from Liberty State Park in Jersey City to Rutgers University’ High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway — through eight towns covering 43 miles — and the event raised $7,000.
In each succeeding year, the number of dollars and volunteers has increased, according to the website.
Today, more than $2 million is raised annually by more than 3,000 officers through local and statewide events, including the Law Enforcement Torch Run, as part of the annual Summer Games in June.
For more information, visit www.njtorchrun.org.