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July 4. 2012
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Page 13
e d itio n
North
Beaverton
photo by
C ari H achmann /T he P ortland O bserver
Kids make a whole lot of noise during an organized rally at the Police Activities League’s annual summer camp at Marshall High School in southeast Portland.
Pumped for PAL Camp
Kids, families bond with police volunteers
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Every morning at 8:30 a.m. busloads of
kids aged 8 to 14 arrive from all comers of
Portland’s eastside to Marshall High School,
this year’s location for the Police Activities
League’s annual summer camp.
PAL is a non-profit that works to build
partnerships between youth, police and the
community through recreational, athletic, and
educational programs.
Every summer, for a low cost, over 35 local
police officers, city officials, and volunteers
coach hundreds of campers in a week’s worth
of sports activities.
“This is just a wonderful environment for
our officers and kids to connect, and for us
to be a service to the kids, their families, and
the community,” said Portland Police Chief
Mike Reese
Earlier this month, director of PAL Jay
Williams and his team of yellow-shirted staff
welcomed a bleacher full o f200plus campers
inside the Marshall gym. Each kid had the
choice of one of 14 different sports, from
archery, boxing, basketball and fishing, to
soccer, baseball, cheerleading and dance.
The point of a morning rally? To make a
whole lot of noise and get the kids pumped
for another police-instructed day of activity.
Hip hop music blasts over the speakers as
PAL staff rile up the crowd, tossing blow-up
Blazer boppers into the hands of screaming
campers.
The loudest kid gets a prize, they say, but
in reality, few campers go home empty-
handed. Out of cardboard boxes, fly t-shirts,
baseball mitts, Nike shoes, tennis rackets,
key chains, and foam koozies. The level of
excitement continues to rise as PAL’s staff
performs daily demonstrations.
Adrenaline-ready, casually dressed po
lice officers and staff leaders guide campers
to the fields or whichever activity-appropri
ate room. Many of the officers and staff
leaders are summer camp veterans.
Hank Hays, a school resource officer in
the Portland Police Youth Service Division
has coached archery at PAL camps for the
past seven years.
“Archery has always been the first to fill
up at PAL,” he said. “It excites me to see the
kids so excited about archery. It’s a 13,000
year-old sport that teaches kids self-disci
pline, self-confidence, and healthy competi
tion.”
Sportsmanship also was the topic for vis
iting lecturer, Portland State University Foot
ball Coach Eric Jackson, who addressed the
crowd and took questions from kids.
Lance Waddy, 27, is a PAL staff member
who has helped coach co-ed basketball at
summer camps for the past 10 years. He sees
the benefits for the cam p’s young partici
pants.
“The best thing form e is the skills that you
get to help them build.” he said. “Whatever
sport you feel you want to get better at, you
get one week to focus on that sport and your
weaknesses.”
Campers get about three solid hours of
activity in before a brown bag lunch is served
at noon by PAL staff members. After lunch,
kids play until 2 p.m. before heading back
home on buses at 2:30 p.m.
PAL camp gets financial help from the
Portland Police Bureau and Portland Public
Schools.
A sa first time camper, Reed Chesnek, 10,
a student at north Portland’s Beach Elemen
tary, was awarded a medal in the PAL cam p’s
closing ceremony for her outstanding par
ticipation in soccer.
continued
on page 14