With center, U. Police PAL up with kids

The Penn PAL Center will provide athletic activities and tutoring to area youngsters. The Penn Police Department hopes to teach area youths a lesson -- on the basketball courts. The officers will get their chance April 14, as the Division of Public Safety and the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia open a new Penn PAL Center just blocks from campus in the Alexander Wilson Elementary School at 46th Street and Woodland Avenue. The facility -- open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday during the school year and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the summer -- will provide athletic and recreational activities, along with tutoring services, to nearly 1,000 local youngsters, PAL spokesperson David Shafie said. Shafie added that PAL Commanding Officer and Philadelphia Police Capt. Charles Brown created the center in a "joint effort" with Penn Public Safety Managing Director Thomas Seamon. "With the full support of Penn, our continued mission to work education into more programs by utilizing Penn students as volunteers and tutors will reach a higher level," Brown said in a PAL press release. University Police Officer Willard Cooper and Philadelphia Police Officer Darren Lindsay will supervise operations in the center, according to the release. Office of Community Relations Director Glenn Bryan and Center for Community Partnerships Director Ira Harkavy were also involved in the creation of the center, University spokesperson Phyllis Holtzman said. Executive Vice President John Fry -- who is on PAL's board of directors -- explained that he plans to raise an endowment of between $300,000 and $500,000 to fund the center. "This is something I'm wholeheartedly behind," Fry said. "In my mind, it's one of the best illustrations of how private and public sector institutions can come together and do something terrific for kids." Fry said he and Seamon have been working on opening the Penn PAL Center since Seamon first drafted his campus security strategic plan in December 1995. "I really do think that this is something that is going to work really, really well and involves all the right players," Fry said. "To tell you the truth, we can do a lot more of this in the future, and we should." Fry said the center is "truly an effort that involves our community people," adding that he believes it to be "a wonderful thing for the Spruce Hill community." Shafie noted that PAL sponsors tutoring sessions and homework clubs at its approximately 22 centers and awards $1,000 college scholarships to more than 170 students each year. "There's an emphasis not only on athletics but on education," he said, adding that one of PAL's slogans is "Not just sports." The center's recreational activities -- which are provided to children free of charge -- will initially include baseball, basketball, table tennis and assorted field trips to local sporting events and museums, the release said. PAL encourages Penn students to volunteer for the center to tutor or in any other capacity, Shafie said, adding that the league employs two full-time education coordinators to assist the center supervisors throughout the city. Approximately 24,000 6- to 18-year-old youths participate in activities at PAL centers throughout the city, he said.

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