Hundreds of participants and spectators gathered at the Lehighton Borough Recreation Center for the Inaugural Officer Down 5K Run/Walk.

Law enforcement agencies from Carbon and Lehigh counties were on hand to support the participants.

The Allentown Police Department Honor Guard, along with the Bethlehem Police Department Mounted Unit attended to provide support for today's festivities.

Local event organizer, Nikki Nothstein reports, "We have over 700 participants, final numbers are currently not available."

"The more I think about how little we do locally to support our officers the more I wanted to bring something home to them. I happened to find the Officers Down Memorial Page, and things kind of fell together pretty quickly. We have had a couple sad years in the last five or so where the line-of-duty deaths hit very close to home. It always strikes a chord throughout the whole Blue Line Family," she said.

The event kicked off shortly after 10:25 am on a beautiful Sunday morning. Just prior to the start of the race, Heather Dantos, sister-in-law of Corporal Bryon Dickson provided a tearful remark.

"Seven months and one day ago a great man was taken from us outside the Blooming Grove Barracks. The outpouring for his fellow officers and my sister, Tiffany, has been tremendous."

The overall winner in the Men's category was Matthew Diehl of Catasauqua with a time of 18:34. The overall winner of the Female category was Stephanie Bender of Albrightsville with a time of 21:00.