Helena police sergeant Domingo Zapata honored for lifelong Special Olympics service

Long before Helena police Sgt. Domingo Zapata became Montana’s 2026 Spirit of Special Olympics Individual honoree, he was a boy in the stands at Vigilante Stadium watching his sister Consuelo “Sway” Zapata compete with Special Olympics.

Zapata said he was “literally born into the program,” and that family connection shaped more than his childhood. He later volunteered at programs, coached athletes and joined the Montana Law Enforcement Torch Run, work that eventually led him to serve as the organization’s state LETR director. He has represented Montana at the USA Games in 2014 and 2018, extending a Helena-rooted family tradition into a statewide role.

Jenny Hill of Great Falls presented Zapata with the honor in Helena, recognizing what Special Olympics Montana describes as one of its most prestigious Distinguished Service Awards. The Spirit of Special Olympics award was expanded in 2025 into two honors, one for an individual and one for an organization, to recognize long-term commitment and unselfish service to the program.

Zapata’s place in the movement has been built over more than 14 years in his professional career. Special Olympics Montana says it now serves more than 5,060 athletes across 171 programs in 132 Montana communities, with support from more than 6,800 volunteers. Its programs include 13 sports plus the Motor Activities Training Program, a network that reaches well beyond competition and into the daily life of families in Helena, Lewis and Clark County and communities across the state.

For Zapata, the award was secondary to the athletes themselves. He said Hill has become like a little sister to him, and he described the best part of the work as seeing athletes’ joy, courage and progress. That perspective has helped make Special Olympics feel less like an event calendar and more like a family, one that has stretched from Vigilante Stadium to Billings, where the 2026 State Summer Games are scheduled for May 13-15.

The recognition also reflects a broader civic trust that reaches beyond policing. In Helena, Zapata’s service has connected public safety, volunteerism and inclusion in a program that has become a steady presence for athletes and families who keep showing up together year after year. He said it plainly: “I don’t do it for the awards. I do it for the athletes.”