Lawrence Police Athletic League receives $25,000

The reestablished Police Athletic League program at the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence received an initial financial donation from Nassau County as County Executive Laura Curran and Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder donated $25,000 on Dec. 23 from the county’s asset forfeiture money.

That money, taken from criminals, will initiate programs that aim to engage young people with multiple activities ranging from sports to education, and anything that the community can create.

“We have so many awesome clinics and initiatives planned as we move forward,” Inwood resident Sasha Young said about the PAL program. “We are extremely proud of our youth advocates for being proactive in making positive changes for our entire community.”  

Young runs Gammy’s Pantry inside the Community Center that distributes food and clothes to people in need. She also helped to spearhead the reintroduction of the PAL program, along with Community Center Executive Director K. Brent Hill, the teenage volunteers and others. 

In September, there was a meeting at the Community Center attended by several Nassau police officials including Ryder, to restart a program that existed a half a century ago and then went dormant because of a lack of interest.

PAL programs now include STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs. Typically, PAL programs are for children from kindergarten to ninth grade, some include young people through high school.

Another program now being introduced is the Youth Police Initiative, which includes sessions where police officers and young people discuss the issues that divide them. This was created in the wake of the George Floyd murder last May which ignited protests, some peaceful, some not, across the nation and locally.

“We as a  community center as a whole are focused  on providing and expanding services at every age level, and to provide experiences and events to enhance lives physically, culturally and philosophically,” Young said.