RUMFORD — For a week this past June, retired police Sgt. Douglas Maifeld of Rumford was in Germany, representing Maine on the Law Enforcement Final Leg Team at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin. He even got to carry the torch.
That final leg team consisted of 120 members from 46 states and 25 countries, including 95 law enforcement officers, 10 Special Olympics athletes and logistics personnel.
Maifeld, 58, said the majority of officers invited to participate in the law enforcement torch run for Special Olympics World Games were chosen for their years of experience with Special Olympics.
He said they woke up at 6 a.m. and went to bed at 11 o’clock at night. “We were busy all the time, going from town to town, speaking engagements, etc.”
Maifeld said, “Some of these host towns we ran through had hundreds of people lining the streets cheering us on. That was the big thing, just bringing the awareness to everybody because Germany doesn’t have their own law enforcement torch run.”
He said, “I was worried about it (the distance), at my age, doing 24 miles in four days. But there was a lot of starting and stopping, too. We all ran as one group, but divided into four different groups that carried the torch through four towns each day.”
Maifeld said one of the more memorable experiences was seeing the parade of athletes at the opening ceremonies.
“When we got there, we were all in full uniform, and some of us got to high five some of the athletes and the delegation as they came through,” he said.
Maifeld said, “I got to meet Tim Shriver (Special Olympics Chairman). I said, “Thank you so much for taking a selfie with me. And he goes, ‘No, thank you for what you do for Special Olympics.’ That made me feel great.”
He noted, “I’m holding my camera up like this as I’m high fiving the athletes. Next thing you know I see a hand go by and I’m going, ‘that was (Special Olympics board director) Maria Shriver.'”
Maifeld said, “It was definitely worth the wait. It was a neat experience. Just a memory I’ll never forget.”
As for the impression this experience in Germany had on him, Maifeld showed his arms. “As you can see, I don’t had tats. But I will probably get a tattoo of the Berlin games logo with the torch at some point.”
He said about meeting members of the law enforcement final leg team, “These people are my family now. I’ve probably got three quarters of them as friends on Facebook from that interaction. Of course, we did patch swaps and coin swaps amongst ourselves.”
Maifeld said he also went to Germany as a way to honor his wife, Mary. “I lost her in January. There were so many times that I took a picture and I said, ‘I’ve got to send it to her. She’ll think this is cool.’ So I posted it on Facebook for my kids to see.”
Asked if he will go back to Germany, Maifeld quickly responded that he definitely will.

It was a long wait

Maifeld said he had been preparing to go the Special Olympic World Games in 2019, which was supposed to take place in Sweden, but the government of that country decided to back out of hosting it. Russia expressed interest, then also postponed the games.
“Then I was given the option of doing the U.S. games in Florida, which I’ve done before, or pick Germany. Germany was more fitting because of my German heritage,” he said, noting he lived there for three years (when he was going to high school). His father, Hank, was serving was in the U.S. military.
Maifeld recalled, “I’d never been to Berlin before because we went to Germany, we couldn’t go to Berlin. The wall was still up at that time. My father had security clearance, so he wasn’t allowed to go to Berlin.”

Will welcome speaking engagements

For the event, Maifeld set a goal to raise $3,000 for the games, which would qualify him to get an Special Olympic World Games torch. He raised almost $4,100.
“I’ll use torch to show it off around town and if I speaking engagements, and I’ll show it to the kids at school,” he said.
Maifeld said he would welcome local organizations to ask him to speak about his experiences at the world games. “That would add to bringing awareness to Special Olympics to people. And that’s the most important part to the whole thing.”
Retired as sergeant in 2020, Maifeld began as the fulltime RSU 10 School Resource Officer later that year.
He has been the Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer from the Rumford Police Department for 30 years with RSU 10.

Maifeld’s experience with Special Olympics

Maifeld said his experience with Special Olympics began in 1988. After completing the reserve academy, he had just joined Rumford PD as a part time officer when then Chief Dewey Robinson, holding a hat and t-shirt for Special Olympics, said, “‘I need someone to go represent the Rumford Police Department.’ He threw the hat and t-shirt at me and said, ‘Go see what this torch run thing is.'”
He said, “I was kind of like Forrest Gump. I started running and I haven’t stopped. I just got hooked from the first day.”
Regarding his time volunteering for Special Olympics, Maifeld said, “I’ve gotten so much out of them by doing what I do for Special Olympics. Like going to a conference in Phoenix and getting to run a final leg (torch run) through Phoenix, which was also where I was born.”
He said, “I look at it by what they’ve given back to me — The looks on their faces when I put the medals on them.”
Maifeld said, “I feel like I’ve given a lot, but I don’t feel like given enough. I just feel like I can’t repay them enough for everything that they’ve done for me…all because the chief threw a shirt and a hat and said ‘go do this torch run.’ He had no clue what it was at the time.”
The Special Olympics World Games serve as a catalyst to challenge perceptions about people with intellectual disabilities, and all people with differences, and demonstrate to the world the power of sport to establish thriving, inclusive communities by transforming attitudes and behaviors.
Some 2,000 athletes and Unified partners from over 100 Nations and 3,000 volunteers from all over the world gathered to create acceptance and inclusion through sport, volunteerism, education and health.

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