For Serrone, Police Week offered time for reflection. Not just
on the stark reality of how dangerous the job is, no matter your
agency, but that you’re there because your sisters and brothers
need you, as they have always needed you, even though they
have fallen.
As he puts it: “We’re not just mourning the officers we lost but
celebrating the lives they lived.”
Everything into perspective
For 300 miles, the Unity Tour inspires reactions that are often
expressed with words such as:
Honor.
Sacrifice.
Tears.
And unity.
The stories about how the Tour, which will include a record
2,300 riders this year, brings the unity to Police Week are as nu-
merous as the nearly $20 million it has raised for the Nation-
al Law Enforcement Officers Memorial since the NJ State PBA
became its first sponsor in 1998. One of the emblematic tales
came last year when the journey had stopped for the day and
the team from Milltown Local 338 was outside the hotel grilling
dinner and having a few beverages.
“This one guy, Jason, started talking with us, telling jokes and
we’re like ‘Come and have a good time with us,’” Rosario recalls.
“Like the Tour says, it’s a brotherly atmosphere. The next thing
you know, he’s riding with us. We kept in touch and told him to
join our group this year and raise money with us.”
Millt own raised money for six of its officers to do the 2017
Tour with its annual cigar night in April. St. Charles, Missouri
Police Department Officer Jason Chapple and O’Fallon, Mis-
souri Police Officer Timothy Wagner drove 15 hours to attend
the cigar night and will be with Milltown on the Tour this year.
All roads lead to Police Week through the Unity Tour because
it always, always includes any department that loses an officer
in the line of duty the previous year and wants to ride. Its unity
extends to Tennessee, Florida, Michigan, Colorado, California,
the entire Northeast and teams from the United Kingdom and
Israel that ride each year.
The Tour has united Mercer County officers, regardless of
union affiliation, in spectacular fashion. Hamilton Township
Local 66 member Len Gatsby and Ewing Township Local 111
member Chris Boller have been driving participation the past
few years, and for 2017 their team of 91 might be the biggest in
the entire ride.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 30
Schedule of Events
May 12
Police Unity Tour Arrival Ceremony
2 p.m.
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
May 13
Annual National Police Week 5K
9 a.m.
601 4th Street, N.W., adjacent to the National Law
Enforcement Officer Memorial
May 13
29th Annual Candlelight Vigil
8 p.m.
National Mall between 4th and 7th streets
May 14
22nd Annual LawRide and Wreath Laying
Ceremony
11 a.m.
Procession will assemble at RFK Stadium/Armory (19th
and East Capitol Street, NE) at 8 a.m.; kick-stands up at
10:45 a.m. for the ride to the Memorial for wreath-
laying ceremony and presentations 11 a.m.-noon.
May 14
Annual Emerald Society/Pipe Band Memorial
March & Service
Assembly will be at New Jersey Ave and F Street NW
at 5 p.m.; the march will step off at 6 p.m. and proceed
to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial,
where the memorial service will be held.
May 14
Steve Young National Honor Guard Competition
and Pipe Band Competition
8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Grant Statue (west front of the United States Capitol)
www.njcopsmagazine.com
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