BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — Few people today would ever consider walking 450 miles to get someplace in less than a week. It’s not a challenge you would consider just for fun.

But 12 members of the Woonsocket Police Department have a very good reason to walk, and run at times, that very distance beginning May 9.
They will once again be raising money for Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), an organization that helps the families of police officers killed in the line of duty.
The local team of police walkers will be making its ninth trip to Washington, D.C. this year on behalf of COPS in a effort to add to the $50,000 in donations already raised for the organization in past years.
The walkers are scheduled to arrive in the nation’s capital in time to participate in National Police Week observances that will include a candlelight vigil at the National Law Enforcement Memorial.
The fact COPS’ work on behalf of survivor families is well known in the area will help make that effort a success once again, according to Det. Roger Biron, one of the department members organizing this year’s walk.
“The proof of that is the positive way people responded to our tag day in the city last week,” Biron said. “The people stopping to donate knew exactly what we were doing and we were able to raise about $3,500 for the walk,” he said.
Putting together a journey by foot to the nation’s capital is no easy task and the department’s International Brotherhood of Police Officers local will be helped in that effort by the city and outside contributors like Flagg RV in North Smithfield, Biron noted.
Flagg RV will once again be donating the use of a RV vehicle for the walkers’ mobile home as they work their way south through Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
 The walkers will also be taking along two police vehicles to provide them a safety vehicle on the road with the walkers at all times. Acting Chief of Police Eric Croce granted the vehicle’s use in support of this year’s walk, and department and city officials will also be helping to mark the team’s departure when they set out from River Island Park on May 9th, Biron noted.
 The walkers will have to cover the cost of fuel and food during the trip but are hoping that another fundraiser scheduled for Saturday evening, a comedy night at the Elks Club on Social Street beginning at 6 p.m., will raise enough to help the team provide COPS with at least the $6,000 it raised last year. Tickets are $25 for the spaghetti and meatball dinner and show put on by five comedians from the Comedy Factory.
 The walkers are also still seeking sponsorships from local businesses and individuals for the trip and information on both options of support can be obtained from Biron or Sgt. Mark Cabral or Det. John Scully by contacting the police station at 766-1212.
 Irwin Harris, a team member who will be making his fourth walk for COPS, said the trip is a demanding effort that’s takes a physical toll before ending in Washington but a rewarding one nonetheless.
“It is the best cause that there is because you are helping the families of our brother officers,” he said.
  Harris does think about the risks of his job and believes most police officers do as well. It helps at those times to know there is an organization out there like COPS to step in if they are needed, he said.
 Robert Shaw also knows why COPS is so important to the families of fallen officers. It the reason why he visited the Woonsocket Police Station this week to collect a check to COPS from last year’s walk to Washington.
  His own son, Providence Police Sgt. Steven Shaw died in the line of duty in Providence in 1994 and COPS has helped his family cope with that loss in the years since. The organization also helps families with school costs and runs camps to help the children of fallen officers make the adjustment to life without them.
  In the process, Shaw has come to know many other families of fallen police officers, families like that of Joseph McGarry, as he works as a representative of COPS locally. McGarry was killed in the line of duty in Myrtle Beach and Shaw now spends time with his father, Joseph, at many COPS events.
 “I always tell them “I walked before you and now we walk side by side,” Shaw said of his work with the group.
 Sadly, Shaw knows he and his family belong to a club of sorts that is always growing. The National Police Week activities in Washington highlight that fact each year when they honor those police officers lost in the past year by adding their names to the Law Enforcement Memorial in the capital.
“This year 180 to 190 people are going up on the wall,” Shaw said. “It’s a club you don’t want to belong to because the price is too high,” he said.
 Shaw commended the local police officers for making another effort to raise funding for COPS and also for remembering the area’s fallen officers as they do. The local team has walked to Washington in memory of Steven Shaw, Providence Police Sgt. Cornell Young Jr., Capt. Allistair MacGregor of East Providence and Providence Detective James Allen most recently.
 The local police have also been visited by the families of fallen officers from the area when setting out from Woonsocket on the trip and can expect that tribute this year as well.
“We’ll be there,” Shaw said while promising his family will be there to walk the first mile with the team as they have in years past. He will also be there in Washington, D.C., to greet them with his trademark hugs when they arrive.
 “By seeing us there, they will know if something ever happens to them there will be someone out there to help their families,” he said.