The Aaron Smith Memorial Flag Football Game, organized by Plainfield High School's Club 361, honors Indiana State Police Trooper Aaron Smith, who was struck and killed in the line of duty on Ronald Reagan Parkway near Interstate 70 in Plainfield in June 2023 while attempting to deploy spike strips during a high-speed pursuit.
Club 361 takes its name directly from Smith's Indiana State Police radio call sign, 52-361, according to WTHR. The club was founded at Plainfield High School in 2024 by Corporal Natalie Groth, a Plainfield police school resource officer, and it centers its mission on three values Smith lived by: wellness, leadership, and service.
The earlier memorial game was held at Plainfield High School and served as a fundraiser.
Vision Screening for Children
The inaugural Aaron Smith Memorial Flag Football Game, held in June 2025, raised nearly $4,000 for Redemption Ranch K9 Rescue, a local nonprofit that trains shelter dogs to become police and therapy K-9s, per the same WTHR report. A Plusoptix device is used in a district-wide Lions vision screening program.
The Plusoptix device is part of the Indiana Lions Operation KidSight vision screening program, which offers free screenings and uses digital photoscreening technology from three to four feet away to detect early childhood vision disorders such as amblyopia, nearsightedness, and astigmatism, according to VisionFirst. Catching these conditions early is considered critical to preventing lasting vision impairment before age seven. The Plainfield Lions Club also awards scholarships to high school seniors.
A Legacy Marked Across Central Indiana
Trooper Smith's death has prompted memorials well beyond the Plainfield High School gridiron. In June 2025, Indiana transportation officials dedicated a section of U.S. 31 in Greenwood, between Smith Valley Road and County Line Road, as the State Trooper Aaron Smith Memorial Highway, according to the Daily Journal. Smith grew up in Greenwood and graduated from Whiteland Community High School before joining the Indiana State Police; he also served in the Indiana Army National Guard.
During his career, Smith received two agency Lifesaving Awards in April 2023 for rendering emergency aid to gunshot victims, and he was posthumously awarded the Indiana State Police's Purple Heart in April 2024, according to INLEM.org. The legal case tied to his death concluded in January 2026, when 20-year-old driver Eddie Jones was sentenced in Hendricks County to 30 years in prison for resisting law enforcement, 10 years for aggravated battery with six years suspended, and four years suspended for battery by means of a deadly weapon, after pleading guilty to resisting law enforcement causing death and battery charges.
With the courtroom chapter closed, Club 361 continues to organize the memorial game. Students and officers are set to face off again on November 14, honoring Smith's memory.
