Special Olympics started dedicated man on path to 30 years


Ric Hogerheide has been called the go-to guy. Sherlynn Everly, a former executive director, said he did everything from getting power to the med tent to forming the fraternity conga-line that gets the water out to the street!

Hogerheide first got involved because of his work with Special Olympics. Hogerheide said he appreciates an honor received on the race's 25th anniversary, but it's not why he donated so many years to the races.

"It's something that I can give back to the community, making sure we have a good name out there," he said. "Knowing I did a good job is what keeps me going."

The job is often overwhelming.

He once spent all night folding up tables after everyone went home, and never counts on getting much sleep during the races.

He said he has tried to quit every year, but he keeps coming back because he enjoys his work "tremendously."

Longtime race director Lois Craig was impressed, not only by good friend Hogerheide's dedication, but by all the volunteers.

"The most fascinating thing to me was just working with people who would come in and just work and work and work and work," she said. "You learn to become like family."

Hogerheide has served as director of operations. Then he worried about cups, tables, and other items

``We probably have about 150,000 cups, but we'll actually use between 120,000 and 130,000. We have to make sure there's enough. We can't just wash them out and reuse them.''

As operations director, he needed 350 banquet tables - reserved parking spots for 120,000 cups of water.

``If you got 200 or 300 people who want water, you can't say, `Wait, let me pour you a cup,' '' Hogerheide said.

He needed at least 8,000 feet of rope and 210 barrels - "You have to tie the rope to something."

``It's not to hang me with,'' he said. ``Though sometimes I'm sure they want to. It's used to cord off areas, hold banners and signs, help at finish lines, rope the chutes to set up scoring and for crowd control.''

Then, there's the 56,000 safety pins. Hogerheide doesn't have fond memories of working with pounds of pins.

He remembers volunteers forgot to pick up their safety pins for the Teddy Bear Trot. Hogerheide jumped into his four-wheeler, headed off and returned to the rescue with thousands of safety pins.

``I popped my head on the bar of the four-wheeler, but I didn't stop,'' he said. ``I had people telling me, `Hey, you got blood running down your face.' (But) You got a task to do and you just do it.''