Ninth annual Lt. Thomas ‘Cliff ’ Rouse Memorial Run planned March 16

ALBANY — In continuing to honor the life of a Dougherty County Police Department officer who was shot while responding to an armed robbery incident in 2010, a committee coordinating a memorial motorcycle ride is also remembering all of Georgia’s fallen police officers.

The ninth Lt. Thomas “Cliff” Rouse Memorial Run is set for March 16, leaving from American Legion Post 30, at 2916 Gillionville Road. Registration starts at 9 a.m. before the first motorcycle leaves at 10 a.m.

After the riders leave the American Legion and get onto Gillionville Road, they will take a route including Georgia Highways 55, 37 and 91 and Eight Mile Road — taking the bikers through plantation areas with attractive scenery and few intersections. Stops are planned at the Nuthin’ Fancy Catfish Restaurant in Leary and in Newton — the latter of which is Rouse’s hometown — where there will be dice rolls before coming back to Post 30 by around noon.

“We always go through Newton because that is where Cliff was raised,” Jackie Rouse, Cliff Rouse’s mother, said.

Like most connected to the event, Jackie Rouse says she is overwhelmed by the response it has gotten.

“It is unbelievable,” she said. “It grows every year; it’s awesome.”

The cost to participate is $25 per ride, and $15 per passenger. The cost includes a T-shirt, a ride pin, a dice hand and a door prize ticket. An extra dice roll costs an extra $5. Payout is $150 for the best hand and $75 for the worst hand.

After the ride, a party scheduled at the American Legion will include music, food and an auction including items from beer companies and otters that may appeal to motorcycle owners. Lunch at noon will cost $7, and a raffle will be conducted for an engraved AR-15.

This year’s ride, the planning of which began in January, is attracting riders from as far away from Albany as Macon and Florida. Money raised at the first event benefited Rouse’s family to the tune of $16,000, and the outreach expanded from there. Organizers eventually decided to make it into a dice ride.

All the proceeds now go to benefit the Georgia Concerns of Police Survivors Foundation, or C.O.P.S, and the families of fallen officers. For Georgia C.O.P.S. alone, more than $100,000 has been raised to date from the ride.

“We are pretty proud of what we have done,” retired Dougherty County Police Chief Don Cheek, who was leading the agency at the time of Cliff Rouse’s death, said. “We are expecting 100-120 bikers, which is about what it has been.”

The food, which will be available beginning at 10:30 a.m., will be barbecue and cookout fare, and a program at 1 p.m. will include a presentation honoring the officers who have been lost in the line of duty.

Members of the committee, which now includes Cliff Rouse’s parents, all have personal ties either to law enforcement or the cause to support them. Cheek, another of the committee’s members, said the nearly 70-mile ride will take place rain or shine.

American Legion Post 335 in Sylvester is also supporting the event, as is a number of businesses based in southwest Georgia. Riders will be escorted by law enforcement officers.

The group coming from Florida, which includes 20-30 riders, will host riders from southwest Georgia at an upcoming event. Some of the riders expected on March 16 have also participated in a ride through metro Atlanta and have paid at least one visit to the statewide police memorial — on which all the names of Georgia’s fallen officers are listed.

“We have made a pledge that we will not forget those officers,” Cheek said. “It is shocking when you go up and see it (the state memorial).

“I have met with the families of fallen officers, and (the reaction of those families from these fundraising events) makes this whole thing so worthwhile.”

The late Dougherty County police officer’s mother did not know her son as a cop, only as a the boy she raised. What she knows of his career, she has learned from his co-workers.

“I’m a momma, and he was 39 when he died,” Rouse said. “He was a man, but in my heart he was my little boy. He was doing the job he loved.”

What he would not love now, she said, is the outpouring of recognition he has gotten.

“He won’t like it; he didn’t like notoriety,” Rouse said. “If it had been any other officer, though, he would be out there.”

Cheek said those involved in the law enforcement community believe themselves to be public servants, and being able to help other families in a community is a cause they think is important. The Albany event is one of several held in Georgia, and they are called by organizers labors of love.

Capt. Angel Bradford of the Albany Police Department, also on the Rouse Ride committee, recalled something said by Cheek at Cliff Rouse’s funeral that has stuck with her.

“Cliff was a hero not for what he did that night, but for what he did every day (in putting on his badge),” she said, citing the eulogy given by Cheek.

For more information on the ride, contact [email protected], or find Lt. Cliff Rouse Memorial Ride on Facebook.