NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Dozens of runners escorted by a police motorcade sped off from Colegrove Park Elementary School on Saturday morning for 5-kilometer "Running With the Law" road race to benefit PopCares.

PopCares raises funds to aid Northern Berkshire individuals and families affected by cancer.

Before the inaugural race, Mayor Richard Alcombright thanked the group of North Adams Police who organized the event that stemmed from a police-student running program at Colegrove.

"Our police are our first line of defense in our community ... and they deserve our thanks and they deserve our respect. I am so proud of the officers of the North Adams Police Department who, in my opinion, have established a model for how cops should be viewed in their communities," the mayor said. "They are stepping outside of the box of traditional law enforcement ... our guys are going to schools, they are going to neighborhoods, and connecting with kids."

He added that people often oversee the many good things officers of the law do, such as the Running with the Law program.

"We see on the news every single wrong thing a police officer does," Alcombright said. "We never hear of the possibly hundreds of thousands of good things that happen with police officers and first responders every day."

The Rev. David Anderson, pastor of First Baptist Church, blessed the race before the runners took off. He noted that police offices and first responders are true heroes.

"We have come to lift up athletes, musicians, and movie stars as heroes, and I think in some respect when we do that we kind of diminish what a hero really is," he said. "This morning as I look around we have a lot of heroes."