Citizens joined up with law enforcement in the Back the Blue K9 One-Mile Run/Walk, held Thursday, October 24, 2024 in downtown Pickens to support the K9 unit of the City of Pickens Police Department. Participants, who either ran or walked, included officers with the Pickens Police Department and the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, as well as local citizens, some of whom participated with their own dogs. The race began in front of Pickens First Baptist Church and ended outside The Open Door, where music was provided by the band The Jaguar 4. All proceeds this year benefited the Pickens City Police Department’s K9 unit.

Pickens Police Chief Randal Beach told The Pickens County Chronicle that the event was the brainchild of Dr. Peter Schriver. “And a lot of people want races where they can run with their dogs,” he added. “The initial one was to support the K9 program, but we’ve had members in law enforcement with cancer issues. We had a deputy in Oconee County who was shot and severely wounded a year ago. A lot of funds went to Deputy Watts over there. This year, we went back to the K9, and we share that with the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff-Elect, Tommy Blankenship, is here, too, running with us. It’s nice to run right down Main Street and watch people enjoy their dogs, and we have a great facility with The Open Door to host us. Dr. Schriver does so much in this community. Every race that we do in this community, Dr. Schriver has a hand in it, to include the Catch-a-Cop and the Hot Pursuit Run. In a few weeks, we’ll put that other handicap swing in. We’ve put one in Pickens. The next swing goes in Easley. We’re going to keep building on the Catch-a-Cop concept and the Hot Pursuit 5K. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of law enforcement out working together. We’re pretty competitive with one another. It’s just a great time.” After the wheelchair-accessible swing is installed in Easley, event organizers hope to later install one in Clemson. “We’re really close for the funding on that,” said Chief Beach. “The last one raised enough to get ready for the next one. We also want to put one at the airport playground. So, it would really round out the county to have these swings everywhere.”  (Publisher’s note: Please click here to read The Pickens County Chronicle‘s May, 2024 story about the Youth Leadership Academy’s Hot Pursuit 5K Run/Walk and One-Mile Catch-a-Cop event at the Pickens Doodle Park that raised funds for a wheelchair-accessible swing in Easley.)

“This is something that I envision being a staple of the Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff-Elect Tommy Blankenship said of events such as the Back the Blue event. “Not that it hasn’t always been, but we want to be really focused in making sure that we are partnering well with our municipalities in everything, not just in our law enforcement efforts but also in our community outreach and our charities,” he told The Chronicle.

“We run this event for various charities,” Dr. Peter Schriver told The Chronicle. “This year, the charity is focused on the K9 unit in Pickens. In other years, we’ve helped first responders in need. The event will come back again next fall.”