2024
Today
A testament to its success, Erie PAL has grown to serve more than 1,700 at-risk youth in 27 locations, with the help of over 120 officers from ten agencies across Erie County.
February 7th, 2023
Inaugural Police Athletic League Ball
The first Erie Police Athletic League Ball featured guest speaker Rasheda Ali-Walsh, daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Ali-Walsh is an internationally known author, speaker, actress, spokesperson and Parkinson’s disease advocate. She spoke about her father’s life and his experience being raised in the PAL program.
2021
2021
PAL Adds Additional Camps
With increased attendance and continued demand, PAL launched a week-long camp at the Boys & Girls Club of Erie to serve an additional 200 youth, and established the Junior Police Academy camp for 18 selected students. PAL also added another week-long Commuter Camp at Gannon University for an additional 300 students.
2020
June 2017
First annual PAL Gannon University Commuter Camp
The first annual PAL commuter camp was held in conjunction with Gannon University. The camp had 62 youth in attendance with activities ranging from athletic skills stations with college athletes, life skills sessions with officers and team building activities.
September 2016
GEARS Program Launched
PAL launched programs in cooperation with the Erie’s Public Schools’ GEARS Afterschool Ed-Venture Program at Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School. City of Erie Police Department officers and Erie County Sheriff’s Office deputies joined teachers to serve 30 students in grades 5-8 per semester.
June 2016
Chapter Established
The Erie Police Athletic League was approved by the National Association of Police Athletic/Activities Leagues Inc. as a chapter.
August 2015
Erie PAL Initiates Pilot Program
The PAL pilot program began with six City of Erie Police Department officers in one school and one community center. The pilot program served 36 students.
July 2015
Bringing It Home
In July 2015, Erie County Chief Deputy Sheriff Jon Habursky, in uniform and on his way home in a marked vehicle, drove through his old neighborhood on Erie’s Eastside. The nearby kids took note when Habursky parked his vehicle and walked on to a familiar basketball court to shoot hoops. A youngster challenged him to a game of one-on-one. Neighbors came outdoors, kids ran down the sidewalks and gathered around to observe what they scarcely could have imagined. Social media took the scene viral, and for at least a few moments, the tension of troubled streets seemed to fade against the backdrop of a kid and a cop testing each other on a basketball court.
1970
1970
Rising To The Top
In 1970, a Latino police capital named Rudy Deleon was facing a rising gang problem in East Los Angeles. DeLeon concluded he could not defeat the gangs by enforcement measures alone, so he decided to take the unprecedented step of converting the basement of the local police precinct into a gym for kids. His plan was to disrupt the gangs’ supply of recruits. A tough Los Angeles cop named Al “Stankie” Stankiewicz, born in Erie, Pennsylvania, soon returned to DeLeon’s gym with Paul Gonzales who, although barely ten years old, had already survived a shotgun blast and was headed down the wrong path. Under Stankie’s tutelage, Gonzales would become the first Latino to win a Gold Medal for the U.S. in Olympic competition. His rise from the barrio of East LA was a powerful symbol to Latino kids everywhere.
1950
The Early Days
1954
In 1954, at a time when Jim Crow segregation laws were enforced in Louisville, Kentucky, a twelve-year-old boy named Cassius Clay had his bicycle stolen and vowed to take his revenge on the perpetrator. Before he could act, a nearby white cop named Joe Elsby Martin suggested to Clay that he first learn to box at the Columbia Gym where Martin trained young fighters. It was precisely the right advice, perfectly timed, and Clay showed up at the gym the next day. Without this chance encounter between a black kid and a white cop, the storied rise of Muhammad Ali might never have happened.