Deputy Jeff Snipes with the Save Our First Responders 5K run, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the event.
The run will be from 7 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 10, and is sponsored by Shatterproof FHE Health.
Deputy Snipes said, “We’re really excited to have this event, and it’s extremely heartwarming and puts a smile on my face and my fellow first responders’ face to see the amount of support that we’ve had in the community. Key West and the Florida Keys is such a supportive community. A lot of great people have already come out and pledged their support, and we’re extremely grateful for that. This event is the highlight of the Monroe County’s annual First Responders week, and it’s dedicated to raising vital awareness and support for the mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, moral injury, PTSD, which is post traumatic stress disorder, PTSI, which is known as post traumatic stress injury and suicidal ideation. Unfortunately, the amount of suicide that occurs with our veterans, we are encouraging all of our 5K participants to join the Wounded Warrior ride, which is later that same day. The Wounded Warrior ride is going to be on the same day as our Save Our First Responders 5K, so we are working in conjunction to make sure that people know about both events. We’ve got 20 kids that are part of the Florida Sea Cadets, these kids are amazing. They’re part of the Navy League, and they’re going to have bikes that are donated by Sunshine Scooters, and they’re going to be biking over, hopefully with a police escort or a correctional escort, over to the community ride, and we’re going to be giving out challenge coins to the veterans, as well as hero medals for all of the veterans that are participating in the Wounded Warrior ride. Cathy Crane, Veteran Affairs and her husband, Captain Crane, is the captain at the Bureau of Corrections, and we’re just honored to be working with them, and really excited to be raising critical awareness about these issues. One of the challenges is to try to talk about these issues in a way that is engaging, and it’s something that people want to hear about. There’s a huge amount of discovery that needs to happen.”
The Super 8 Challenge includes eight separate teams competing for trophies and medals.
Deputy Snipes said, “I just want to take a second to thank Sheriff Rick Ramsay, we’re extremely grateful that he will be present, providing encouragement and support to all participating first responders and award the gold, silver and bronze medals, as well as team trophies to the top three first responder teams in the Super 8 competition. Major Age of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Corrections will also be there. He will recognize the invaluable contributions of our youth volunteers, including members of the Keys Sea Cadets as well as individual members of the National Junior Honor Society here in Monroe County by handing out signed certificates of achievement and hero medals to all of the children in the community that are volunteering to support the 5k and in addition to that, Key West City Commissioner Donie Lee, is going to present the winning first responder team with the prestigious Alioht Valdes-Marrero perpetual first place team trophy. The winning agency is going to have the honor of keeping this trophy until next year’s race, and this is a way to keep officer Alioht Valdes-Marrero, keep his spirit alive. He was a Key West Police Department officer that we lost in February of 2022 way too early due to some of the reasons that we’ve discussed earlier. But I made a promise to his family about three years ago that we would find a way to keep his spirit alive. And I have spoken with his brother, and his brother is very supportive of this race and happy that it’s going to be happening. I have gained a new brother in him. So that’s a wonderful thing. I’m extremely thankful for that. We’ve got about 20 members of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Corrections, signed up for the event. And in addition to that, we’ve got about 11 law enforcement officers signed up. Key Colony Beach is represented in that in that we’ve got five from the Key West Police Department. We have a couple folks from the Florida Wildlife Commission signed up as well. As well as Ashley 911 dispatchers up in Monroe County, as well as our nurses, paramedics and EMT team and the US Armed Forces team.”
The support for our first responders is always needed.
Deputy Snippes said, “I want to encourage the firefighters in Monroe County to get involved. I was out at the Tunnel to Towers event last Saturday. It was awesome. This is open to all ages of the public, and we you can come out and walk, you don’t have to run, or you can come out and run, or you can run, walk so, or you can just come out and be with us and support us. We’re really starting a movement here that I think Key West is the perfect build for, and when it comes to providing peer support for first responder families that we do hope, and we have been in talks with the the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, we’re hoping we can bring more first responder families to Key West and the Florida Keys, and that we can encourage them to get out and do some fishing, get out and do some snorkeling and some diving, and also to enjoy the camaraderie of being with their fellow first responders and having that peer support service available to them.”
For more information, click here: https://runsignup.com/Race/FL/KeyWest/SaveOurFirstResponders5K