WESTPORT (WKOW) -- A group of former law enforcement officers drove into Dane County's Law Enforcement Training Center on Friday to honor late deputy Richard Treadwell, who died of COVID-19 last August. The stop was just the latest on their 24,000 mile trip around the country.

End of Watch's "Ride to Remember" arrives in Dane County. (Photo: Ward Jolles, WKOW)

Friends and family members of Treadwell gathered in silence to remember their loved one.

"We all are hurting," said Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett. "He's gone but he's not forgotten, but it still hurts. It hurts all of us. Because it is a reality that we all face every day when we wake up and put on this badge."

The Beyond the Call of Duty group's "Ride to Remember" takes them across the country every year to pay tribute to fallen officers and support their loved ones.

The group will visit 42 states and over 100 sheriff's offices this year, it's a trip that takes 83 days and covers nearly 24,000 miles.

Family members hug in front of Deputy Treadwell's Picture. (Photo: Ward Jolles, WKOW)

"We do this because I wanted departments to know that their loss is being felt across the nation," said group organizer Jagrut Shah. "We're going to keep on honoring them, keep on talking about them, keep on revisiting who they were and allow that momentum and memory to go amongst all the survivors."

The group spent day 71 of their trip in Dane County to pay tribute to Deputy Treadwell, an honor the sheriff's department said they won't forget.

"He set the foundation for the success that I've built upon today," said Barrett. "So that means the world to me, not only for the Treadwell family and the Dane County Sheriff's Office, but for me as Kalvin Barrett."

The group still has a few thousand more miles to go before finishing this year's journey.