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Meet the Butler corrections officer running the 5K and 10K at Can Am Games

First responder Matt Sydlik is participating in the Can-Am Police-Fire games. He sat down with the Eagle at Vintage Coffeehouse in Butler on Friday, July 12.

As a corrections officer, Matthew Sydlik’s workday is all about bars and captivity, so it’s no surprise he wants to get out and run when he gets the chance.

Sydlik, who lives in Butler, works for the State Correctional Institution at Mercer, and commutes roughly 40 miles to work each day. One of his duties is to make sure the penal system in Mercer doesn’t descend into chaos every day.

“I could be the scheduling lieutenant, where I'm sitting at the desk making a roster for the next day and calling people in for overtime,” Sydlik said. “Or I could be the zone lieutenant where I'm out walking one of our zones and checking in on housing units and just making sure that everything's moving smoothly during the shift.”

Sydlik has been working for the corrections department for 15 years, a career that began shortly after he returned from his yearlong deployment in Iraq in 2009 with the Pennsylvania National Guard. The 40-year-old Sydlik retired from the National Guard in November.

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