Never Forgotten
A stranger among us
What happens on the road doesn’ t always stay on the road. In fact, the memorable events on the ride from Mercer County to Washington, D. C. in the swarm of 90 Chapter 10 riders from Mercer County are ones that Team Ewing carried with them like souvenirs of the 2017 Unity Tour.
This year, the memorable story was all about Doug. If you’ re wondering who Doug is, so did Brittney Fornarotto of Ewing Township Local 111 when she went to retrieve an item from the Chapter 10 support van and discovered a stranger sitting inside. After some questioning, Fornarotto learned that Doug, badge number 351, joined the Unity Tour from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was told to rest in their support van when he felt under the weather on Day Three of the ride.
“ Let’ s just say, Doug is now our good friend,” Fornarotto shared amusingly alongside the other 10 riders from Team Ewing, who agreed that the mystery man in their support van turned into an unexpected member of their crew along the way.“ You meet people from all over on the Tour and you actually start lifelong friendships with them.”
It’ s memories like this one, paired with the overall feeling of achievement officers get from cycling the distance in honor of those who’ ve died in the line of duty, that leads Fornarotto to believe the Police Unity Tour is something every law enforcement officer should experience. She’ s used this explanation to convince her two older brothers, who are also in law enforcement, to join her on the Unity Tour next year for the first time.
Ewing Township Local 111 member Brittney Fornarotto( center) with some of the more than 90 members from the Mercer County Team who rode the Unity Tour this year.
“ Little sister’ s got to get them into it,” Fornarotto joked, knowing from experience that the Police Unity Tour strengthens the bonds between those who serve and the ones who have made the ultimate sacrifice.“ We come closer as a department, as a team, as a chapter and as brothers and sisters. It’ s just something that brings us all together.” d
A first time for everyone
As West New York Sergeant George Mundo followed the first group of riders into the National Law Enforcement Memorial, he felt the full force of the Unity Tour. People cheering. Actual fans of law enforcement officers high-fiving riders as they took a victory lap, and adulation that only Olympic gold medalists get to experience.
Mundo had heard about this moment, and now he was being overwhelmed by it for the first time. The euphoria of finishing your first Unity Tour can never be overhyped, and even 26 years into the job Mundo now understood why you never forget your first.
“ I should have done this a long time ago,” he declared.“ You really have to do it to really experience the whole thing. It’ s an awesome, awesome feeling.”
Mundo rode with a group of West New York Local 361 members who followed the lead of Tate Whisten, riding for the ninth time. When Whisten was able to hoist his son, draped in a Blue Lives Matters flag, up on his shoulders after finishing, he radiated that“ every time feels like your first time feeling” that led 2,500 riders to participate this year and why nearly 21,000 riders have crossed that finish line in the 20 years of the Tour.
The moment just before crossing into the Memorial is actually what brought Whisten back for his ninth run.
“ The first group you saw come in were the family members of the fallen, so it’ s kind of special to see that they come out here and rode 300 miles for their loved ones they lost,” Whisten related.“ You can do it 20 times, but you still get this amazing feeling coming in here. I tell people all the time that you can hate being a cop 364 days a year, but you come in here this one day and the excitement is just overwhelming.” d
Tate Whisten found his son waiting for him when he completed the 2017 Tour.
48 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JUNE 2017