ROCKWELL — The Rockwell Police Department has opened up registration for what it hopes will be the first in a line of annual 5Ks held in honor of former Police Chief Hugh Bost and benefiting local law enforcement K-9 programs.

The 5K, which is planned for Sept. 7, will begin at 8:30 a.m. at Rockwell Town Park, located at 699 Lake Dr., and run through downtown before ending back at Rockwell Town Park. Tickets for the 5K are $25 if bought before race day and $30 if bought at the event, according to the registration page.

The event will also include a fun run, which will consist of two laps around the walking path at the town park. Tickets for the fun run are $10 and fun run tickets with a T-shirt included are $15.

Rockwell Police Chief Cody Trexler said that walkers are also welcome at the event and encouraged to attend.

Trexler said that he floated the idea for an annual race because the town has not had any racing events for years. He then reached out to David Freeze, the president of the Salisbury-Rowan Runners, who he said was instrumental in getting the event started.

Trexler said that anyone interested in joining the event can sign up in person at the department, through mail-in forms that can be found at local businesses throughout the area or online at runsignup.com/Race/NC/Rockwell/HughBostMemorial5K.

The proceeds from the event will go towards law enforcement K-9 programs throughout the area and towards departments that are working to start a K-9 program, said Trexler.

“For as long as he’s been in law enforcement, Hugh Bost had been a K-9 officer,” said Trexler.

Bost served in law enforcement with both the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and the Rockwell Police Department since he was first sworn in as a deputy in 1977. During that time, he worked with two Rottweiler partners, Rambo and Zukko, who assisted in narcotic searches and patrol.

He continued to serve with the sheriff’s office as a full-time deputy for 20 years, until former Rockwell Mayor Harold Earnhardt asked the sheriff’s office if they would run Rockwell’s volunteer police department. The sheriff at the time asked Bost, who served as the chief of the Rockwell Fire Department, to take over the job of overseeing the volunteer department himself.

Five years after he took over the department, Bost went to another former mayor, Robert Bost (no relation), and talked with him about chartering the town’s own full-time police department.

“A police officer at the time in Salisbury gave me a call and he said listen. He said they’re both qualified, no doubt. But he said the man from Hendersonville is going to use this town as a stepping stool, that’s all it’s going to be. But he said if you hire Hugh, you’re going to hire a man who is going to dot every i and cross every t. He’s never going to leave you. And that was an easy thing wasn’t it, to choose?” said Robert Bost in 2023 when the town renamed the police department building in honor of Hugh Bost.

Bost retired in 2022 after serving for 40 years as the Rockwell Police Chief. Bost died at the age of 68 in September of 2023.