The Cellcom Green Bay Marathon is just a month away, and among the nearly 9,000 runners taking part is a group of police officers running in full uniform.
They’re trying to raise money and awareness along the way, in honor of some very special people.
Among the sea of marathon runners dressed head to toe in athletic gear, Kyle Betzner will quickly stand out. The Pulaski police officer, a 2004 graduate of Shawano Community High School, is running all 26.2 miles in his police uniform, including a bullet-resistant vest.
It’s the smallest part of the uniform that carries the biggest meaning.
He’ll wear the same badge Officer Bob Etter wore in his time at the Pulaski Police Department. Etter was killed in the line of duty with the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department in 2002.
“I’ll actually be wearing that badge during the marathon,” Betzner said. “Having that little piece of him with me the entire time running just gives me more motivation.”
Betzner is a former community service officer in Shawano and served with the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department.
A picture of Etter still hanging in the department reminds Betzner of Etter’s sacrifice and of another friend, Shawano County sheriff’s deputy James Stoltenow, killed on duty in 1987.
“Just having those two people in mind really kind of pushes you to do your best,” Betzner said. “It makes the training a little bit easier, knowing that they’re in the back of your mind.”
He won’t be alone. Seven other officers from agencies across the state will run together, each in uniform, raising money for Wisconsin Concerns of Police Survivors, or Wisconsin COPS.
The organization helps families officers killed in the line of duty.
“I went to a training academy on the East Coast, and one of the days we spent a full day with the children of cops that were killed in the line of duty,” Appleton Police Chief Todd Thomas said. “It really tore at my heart, because I had a young child at the same time, and it really showed me the need for this organization and for this group.”
The idea of running for COPS started with Officer Israel Deutsch, now with the Sheboygan Police Department, who ran the Cellcom marathon last year.
The group has already raised more than $7,000 for the donation-driven organization.
“This is nothing compared to what others, what children are going through, what the husbands and wives of officers who were killed in the line of duty, what the families and their co-workers have gone through,” Thomas said.
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