Medals and hugs plentiful at Special Olympics

Bobby Lundgren of Havelock wore two medals around his neck and smiled Thursday as he ran on the track at Grover C. Fields Middle School.

Lundgren sported a blue New York Giants baseball cap, an orange T-shirt and blue-jean shorts. When he stopped running, he received another medal for winning a four-man relay race at the end of the Craven County Special Olympics.

He was one of about 300 athletes with disabilities who competed in 12 events at the games. He helped begin the event with the torch relay Thursday morning.

At 7:30 a.m., a group of 10 law enforcement and military members ran out the front gate at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The runner in front carried a torch, much like the flame used in the international Olympic Games.

The runners traveled west on U.S. 70, jogged down First Street in New Bern, moved along MLK Boulevard and finished at Grover C. Fields about 10:15. They handed the torch to Lundgren.

"I felt really good emotion," he said. "It's good exercise to run, and it's just a lot of fun to be out here."

Lundgren won medals by running in the 50-meter and 100-meter dashes at the event. Other athletes competed in softball throws, long jumps and wheelchair races. Lundgren and his longtime friend, Mo Cousear, won a medal in the four-man relay race.

Cousear is moderately retarded, said his mother, Robin Giles. When he was born prematurely, he weighed 2 pounds and 11 ounces. He had cerebral bleeding, Giles said.

"He learned to talk when he was 5," Giles said. "Now he's 25, and I've been bringing him to these events for 21 years. I remember some of them in elementary school, and I've watched them grow up."

Lundgren and Cousear met at Havelock High School. Now they are inseparable, Giles said. When Giles calls Cousear, he hands the phone to Lundgren.

"Bobby's kind of Maurice's spokesman," Giles said. "But he can do anything on his own. They are both so remarkable, and they have no fear."

As Cousear crossed the finish line of the relay, he threw his arms in the air, clapped his hands and stuck his tongue out. He smiled, shook hands with Lundgren, took a picture with his mother and hugged volunteers who helped him.

Josh Schaalma was one of about 300 people who volunteered at the Special Olympics. Schaalma is a Marine at Cherry Point.

"When we came in, the applause for our efforts was overwhelming," he said. "If we had nothing else, that was enough reward. But it's so much more rewarding to work with these athletes. It's a good environment for them and a place where they know they have support."