A Yonkers Original: Joe Barca Celebrates 40 Years with the Law Enforcement Torch Run
By Randy Robertson, NYC Regional Storyteller
Joe Barca slipped out of town just as his big day arrived.
After 35 years of service in the Yonkers Police Department, Barca reached the pinnacle of his career. He was to be promoted to captain, and all the local police dignitaries would be there to celebrate. Joe had other plans.
On the same day as his promotion ceremony in 2006, Joe Barca was halfway across the country in Chicago participating in a Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run. It wasn’t just any old run either, it was the prestigious Final Leg segment leading up to the first Special Olympics USA Games! The promotion ceremony had to take a back seat.
You see, each state selected just one law enforcement officer to participate in the Final Leg, and for all of New York State that guy was Joe Barca. And if you know Joe Barca, you know that he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to represent New York in that historic run.
“A week before I’m scheduled to leave for the Final Leg, my job notifies me, you get promoted to captain on this date,” Barca recently recalled. “And I said, ‘I’m going be away on the torch run. What do you want me to tell you?’ So they promoted me anyway! My wife Helen and my kids went to the promotional ceremony to receive my shield. It was the first time ever, giving the wife the shield!”
Barca lets out a short belly laugh and rubs his bald head, still amused by the events of his big day. You can’t be in two places at once, so Barca opted to join 49 other law enforcement runners as they made the westward trek from Chicago to Ames, Iowa. The officers were running and bonding and creating lifelong memories. That Barca would place the Special Olympics and a commitment to the greater team above his personal moment was no surprise.
“I’m not really a guy who looks for the spotlight,” Barca confided on a recent afternoon at his Yonkers home. Barca retired from the Yonkers Police Department as captain in 2015, but he continues to be a driving force in the city’s annual Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR).
On May 12, Barca will mark the 40th anniversary of his first LETR in Yonkers, and since that first event, he’s attended every year. For most of those years he not only ran but helped organize the day’s events. Along with Helen, who admirably has joined Joe from the sidelines in a service role annually, Joe wouldn’t miss it for the world. Barca confirmed he’s the only Yonkers officer to participate in all previous torch runs, and he believes he is likely the only such person in all the State of New York.
“I’ll be there in a support way, I just can’t physically run anymore,” Barca said. “It would be kind of tough. I’m 75 years old now. And hey, it’s just catching up with me. But you know what? At least it’s catching up with me, and it didn’t stop me!”
Barca walks a little gingerly these days, his hip may require medical attention soon and he’s adjusting to a left knee replacement from a year ago. As he reminisces about past torch runs, you can see the passion in his eyes shining brightly. He goes on to say how he and his colleagues in Yonkers got involved in all of this to begin with.
The first LETR started in 1981 in Wichita, Kansas, Barca noted. Six officers ran with a torch from the police headquarters to the Special Olympics competition at a nearby high school, then they stuck around to watch for a bit. When someone asked them to help hand out medals to the athletes, a wonderful tradition was born. A few years later the idea spread to New York, and by 1990 the movement included every U.S. state and several other countries.
“In 1986 the state troopers called for the county sheriffs from all the counties in New York State to meet them at their academy, and they had a presentation about it,” Barca recalled. “And then those sheriffs brought it back to their local counties. I was in charge of the Yonkers Police Roadrunners Club. So the PBA president says to me, Joe, this sounds like a running event. This is something maybe you should be involved in, and he gave it to me.”
To say that Barca ran with the opportunity would be an understatement. He organized the local officers and got them fired up to participate as a unit.
From that first LETR, the Yonkers officers ran together rather than hand off the torch relay style. As 10-15 officers ran together, they handed off the torch periodically so that everyone had an opportunity to run and carry the torch. So it was that in the same month in 1986 that a young Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All” dominated the radio airwaves, a great love affair began between Joe Barca and his Yonkers colleagues and the Special Olympics.
“In 1986, I got involved as a running event, never really gave the athletes much thought,” Barca said. “I knew what Special Olympics was, but the primary reason for joining was for the running event. After a couple of years of doing the torch run and getting to know the athletes on a one-to-one basis, it was something I knew I had to stay involved with.”
According to Barca, some years there are multiple athletes along with them, other years not as many. They’re never sure until the big day, but regardless of the size of the running group, everyone has a great time knowing they’re supporting an important cause.
Barca enjoys seeing the local support, as he was born and raised in Yonkers. He joined the YPD as a cadet in 1969 and became an officer in 1971. Through his career he was promoted to sergeant and lieutenant and finally to captain before his retirement. For more than half of his career, he worked and supported the Special Olympics.
“I did 46 years, and I like to tell people, I never worked a day in my life,” Barca said. “I loved helping people. And that’s part of the reason why I joined with the Special Olympics, it was an easy match for me.”
Clearly, Joe and Helen passed that baton on to their children. Sons Christopher and David followed Joe into law enforcement. Christopher recently retired after a successful career as a K-9 officer in Yonkers, and David is currently a sergeant there. A third son, Matthew, is a schoolteacher and also supports the Special Olympics.
As Joe celebrates his 40th anniversary participating in the torch run, sons Christopher and David are each now at 20+ years involved with the LETR. The Barcas support the Special Olympics as a family. In fact, displayed proudly next to Joe’s Final Leg torch is a photo showing Joe, Christopher, David, Matthew and several other family members participating in a Polar Plunge at nearby Rye Playland, a major fundraising event that Joe helped pioneer in the county as well.
“We’re a family that does everything together,” Helen Barca noted. “If someone is involved in something we all get involved and help out. It’s just what we do.”
Joe Barca has made a career of helping people. He recalls that in 1993 he answered a call about an unconscious baby. Barca was five blocks away and responded quickly, and as another officer drove them to the hospital, Barca kept patting the baby’s back until a large mucus blob was finally dislodged and the young girl regained her breath and her life. They stay in touch to this day, and several years ago one of the young lady’s own children thanked Joe for saving his mom’s life years ago.
In the terrible and shocking hours on 9/11/2001 after the World Trade Center collapsed in lower Manhattan, Joe responded along with other Yonkers Emergency Services officers. He spent much of the next two weeks around the site doing all he could to help.
Through all the years, through triumphs and tragedies and the satisfaction of raising a family with Helen, Joe Barca kept running and running. Lacing up his sneakers and heading out for a run was one of the constants in Barca’s life for as long as he can remember.
For 25 years, he ran the Yonkers Marathon every spring and the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. every fall. That’s right, Barca completed 50 full marathons! Why did he start?
“I liked to run, and the Yonkers Marathon starting line was only three blocks from my house at the time,” Barca recalled with a laugh.
Because he chose law enforcement as a teenager and got addicted to running, Barca found himself leading that Yonkers Police running club in 1986. And because he got involved with LETR that first year, the Yonkers section has been running smartly for four decades.
In 2022, the LETR movement surpassed the $1 billion mark in funds raised globally for Special Olympics programs. The phenomenal milestone was made possible by many devoted people, including Joe Barca and his family.
On May 12, the Barca family will once again step up and support the Special Olympics and the torch run in Yonkers. There’s nowhere else Joe Barca would want to be.
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