By Fallan Patterson 
Staff Writer

Local charities were the real winners Jan. 15 as Osceola County police officers and deputies as well as corrections officers and firefighters competed in the Third Annual Pig Skin Classic Flag Football Challenge at St. Cloud’s Stephanie Rothstein Park.

The St. Cloud and Kissimmee police departments, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Kissimmee Fire Department, Osceola County Fire Rescue and the Osceola County Corrections Department played double-elimination flag football to raise money for Special Olympics and Relay For Life. SCPD Deputy Chief Vinny Shepard said the event raised $1,000.

“All of us are involved in some way with public service,” Sheriff Bob Hansell, who watched his deputies from the sidelines, said. “It’s very fun and rewarding for the guys to be out there.”

KPD was last year’s defending champions and SCPD won the first year. This year, however, due to time constraints, the championship game between the two police departments was unable to be played and no champion was crowned, KPD spokeswoman Stacie Miller said.

“It’s very competitive,” Miller, who created the event three years ago, said.

The first game of the day, SCPD against KFD, was doubly competitive as brothers Casey and Chad Lawson, the former a SCPD canine officer and the latter a KFD firefighter, went head-to-head. The game ended in a shutout, with SCPD winning 26-0 after several interceptions by SCPD.

“We’ve got a lot of speedy young people (on our team),” Shepard said after the win. “That’s why I’m playing center.”

KPD went undefeated and SCPD had lost just one game, to the Sheriff’s Office, which pitted the two teams against each other for the final game. However, the event that was scheduled to end at 2 p.m. lasted until 4 p.m. when many officers were tired or had to report for work.

Despite the lack of a reigning champion, KPD Chief Fran Iwanski said the event was not just about raising money for a good cause but allowing for downtime for the officers and firefighters.

“It brings all the agencies together at one event. They work together but it gives them some time to socialize together,” she said.