The Carolina Brotherhood, a group of firefighters and police officers, made two stops in Dillon County on Sunday as part of a 700-mile cycling event that honors fallen police officers and firefighters.
The group of 27 riders and 14 support staff stopped at the Kemper Fire Department and the City of Dillon Fire Department.
This is the second year of the ride, which originally started in memory of Jeff Bowen, an Asheville, NC firefighter who lost his life.
This year’s ride honored Master Police Officer Jeremiah M. Goodson, Jr. of the Lumberton, NC Police Department. He is a 1998 graduate of Dillon High School and joined the Lumberton Police Department in June 2006. He was killed in July 2012 as he attempted to arrest a wanted man.
Others who the ride was dedicated to included DNC Highway Patrol Trooper Bobby Gene Demuth, Jr.; Dewayne Charles Hester, a Bladen County, NC Deputy Sheriff; Master Corporal Sandra E. Rogers of the Aiken Department of Public Safety; and Detective Randall “Shane” Thomas of the Henderson County, NC Sheriff’s Office.
Jim Squittieri of the Charlotte, NC Fire Department said the ride helps to lend emotional support and financial support to the families of the fallen. He said it serves to show that although these officers have died that they are not forgotten. He said the ride is long and hard, but that it should be because the officers they are honoring made the ultimate sacrifice. Their stops include places where officers were killed. The ride started on August 10th at Rocky Mount, NC. There were stops in Elizabethtown, NC, Lumberton, NC, Darlington, SC, Columbia, Aiken, Honea Path, Hendersonville, Marion, and Boone. It lasts from August 10th-17th. Riders were from all over NC and SC including Charlotte, Columbia, Raleigh, Asheville, Gastonia, Salisbury, Wilmington, and Hollywood, FL.
For more information and to learn more about how to support this event, visit their website at https://CarolinaBrotherhood.com; follow them on Twitter at @CarolinaBHood; or visit their Facebook page.