Event Ended3rd Annual Police Athletic League Ball

Ambassador Center

7794 Peach Street, 16509, Erie, PA, United States

Erie Police Athletic League

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In 2016, the City of Erie Police noticed a need in the community that had been lost. Lt. Tom Lenox envisioned to bring back the Erie Police Athletic League. The program started in Pfeiffer-Burleigh with approximately 30 students. The program started as a way to mend the Cop-Kid relationship. Allowing officers to show that they are people too and allowing them to engage with the youth outside of work. Officers help the students with homework, play organized games, and most importantly have heart to heart one on one conversations with all of the students.Fast forward to today, we now have now served approximately 1200 kids throughout the inception of PAL. The program is now in 19 different locations throughout the entire City of Erie. Along with the kids, we have around 100 different law officers from all aspects of the criminal justice system. Erie Police, School District Police, Sheriff Department, Juvenile Probation, Adult Probation, and Erie County Detectives which have all joined together to help build the trust and communication throughout the City of Erie.As the program began to grow Erie PAL realized that there was a need for the youth to have continuous relationship with positive role models in their lives. This is when we began to host our summer programing. We started with our first camp at Gannon University. We became one of the only PAL programs in the nation to host a summer camp at a University.Throughout the school year, the students are incentivized with various field trips throughout the year. Erie PAL takes annual trips to Niagara Falls, and Pittsburgh Science Center for the top 10 kids from each school during the year. We also take a local field trip where all of our PAL kids are able to attend.At the end of the school year, all of the students are provided an invitation to 2 out of our 4 summer camps our Boys and Girls Club camp and Gannon Camp. The first camp we have is the Annual Erie Boys and Girls Club Camp. This is a weeklong camp where the kids get to play games and have a fun time with the officers. Every year we pick a day and make it a beach day where the students get to spend the day out at Presque Isle. This is a very important camp not only is it the first camp of the year, but the students have an opportunity to get an invitation to our Junior Police Academy. To get an invitation to this camp, the students need to show all of the important aspects to what it means to be a police officer. Students must show: Leadership, integrity, listening skills, and most importantly communication skills. If a student was selected for this camp, they are then handed a letter from the police department acknowledging all of their hard work that they have shown throughout the year. This is another weeklong camp where students get an inside look on how the police department works and really see if they have what it takes to be a police officer. They take a trip to the Mercyhurst Police Academy, spend a day at the court house learning about the criminal justice system, and at the end of this hard week, they have a graduation at City Council Chambers where their families and friends could attend. The 3rd camp, is for students that have graduated from the Junior Police Academy. This camp is a two-day camp at Mercyhurst University with their Intelligence program. This camp is very immersive, where students learn how the intelligence community assists law enforcement in all aspects of work. The final camp is our “Grand Finale” at Gannon University. This is our most attended camp with numbers close to 300 students. During this camp the Gannon student athletes help with the kids showing them what it truly takes to achieve their dreams of playing sports at a high level. Students compete in basketball, football, soccer, arm wrestling, swimming, along with numerous other sporting events. This camp is a favorite among our kids.If the students really take the time and buy into the program, its values, and the objective of making Erie a better and safer place, they are rewarded with some of our bigger trips. This past year in 2023/2024 we have expanded the program to new levels. We took our first trip to Washington D.C. where we took 46 students for an overnight trip to our Nation’s Capital. The students were able to see Arlington National Cemetery where they were able to witness the changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. From there the students took a tour of the most iconic and historically significant monuments in our nation. The next day the students were able to go and visit the Holocaust Museum and the National Law Enforcement Museum.The Second big trip that we took this year, to New York City. We took 20 students to NYC for a two-night trip. The first night there the students were to see Aladdin on Broadway. The next day the students were able to sight see around NYC where we saw all of the major sights. We then got onto the Ferry where we went to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. On our final day, we took the students to see the 9/11 memorial museum and took a tour of NYPD main command station where they were able to see how a Major City’s Police Department functioned.The Erie Police Athletic League knows that the foundation of our community starts with the youth. We are not only trying to build life long bonds with our youth, but also trying to give them experiences that they may have never had the opportunity to experience. Your donation is not going to us, it is going to provide the youth of Erie a safe place to learn, grow, and become the best versions of themselves!