PAL Summer Camp
PAL After School
PAL Police A-Kid-Emy
PAL Sports
PAL 100 Cops / 100 Kids
PAL Dances
Volunteer Application - Print, sign, and return this application to Megan Butler by postal mail, email mail, or bring it by the Police Department in order to volunteer for PAL. Megan's contact information is at the bottom of this page.
The National Police Athletics/Activities Leagues, Inc. exists to prevent juvenile crime and violence by providing civic, athletic, recreational and educational opportunities and resources to PAL Chapters.
PAL is a youth crime prevention program that utilizes educational, athletic and recreational activities to create trust and understanding between police officers and youth. It is based on the conviction that young people - if they are reached early enough - can develop strong positive attitudes towards police officers in their journey through life toward the goal of maturity and good citizenship. The PAL program brings youth under the supervision and positive influence of a law enforcement agency and expands public awareness about the role of a police officer and the reinforcement of the responsible values and attitudes instilled in young people by their parents.
Studies have shown that if a young person respects a police officer on the ball field, gym or classroom, the youth will likely come to respect the laws that police officers enforce. Such respect is beneficial to the youth, the police officer, the neighborhood and the business community.
As the success of the PAL concept spread, PAL programs developed in other communities. A little over 60 years ago, six Chapters on the eastern seaboard joined together to form an association to share ideas and resources and compete in several sports. Today, there are over 400 PAL Member Chapters in law enforcement agencies servicing over 700 cities and 1,700 facilities throughout the United States, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, serving more than two million youth, ages 5 to 18.
The Greenville PAL currently offers 6 programs in which we reach the youth ages 5-13.
PAL Summer Camp
One of the programs offered is the PAL summer camp in which we reach about 110 at risk youth. The PAL summer camp is the first program that PAL offered to the citizens of Greenville in 2007. The PAL summer camp runs for 8 weeks from 7:30am-5:30pm Monday-Friday.
There are two sites that the camps run out of and they are South Greenville Recreation Center which holds about 34 youth ages 5-13 and the other is the Eppes Recreation Center which holds about 76 youth 5-13. The South Greenville group is one whole group whereas the Eppes group is broken down into two 5-8 yr old groups that have 20 participants each and one group of 30 9-13 yr olds.
At both sites there is a PAL police officer to insure that there is always an officer at the site while the PAL programs are going on. During the summer camp the participants get the chance to go to the pool, go skating, go out for ice cream, have police presentations, play games, and travel in and outside of Greenville for fun and exciting trips all while interacting with Greenville police officers.
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PAL After School Program
Another program that we offer to the citizens of Greenville is PAL after school which runs 2:30pm-6:30pm every day that school is in. After the police department and the recreation and parks department saw how successful the summer camp was, the after school program was started in 2007 as well. This program is ran out of the same two sites as the summer camp (Eppes & South Greenville Recreation Center). Each site holds about the same number as the summer camp but instead of breaking them up by age they are broken up by grade levels. During the after school program the participants receive a snack while working on homework, reading, having computer time, working on an arts and crafts project once a week, and having recreation time.
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PAL Police A-Kid-Emy
The Police A-Kid-Emy program is designed to be a miniature Police Academy for youth ages 5-13. This is a week long program that runs the week of Pitt County Schools Spring Break. During this week the youth get to learn about many of the different roles the police department plays in their community, as well as the fire department and state troopers. They also go on educational trips to destinations such as Tryon Place, The Imagination Station, Children’s Museum, etc. The whole week the youth get to interact with police officers who come and help out with the program. On average there are about 5 police officers a day interacting with the youth, not to mention the ones who just stop in to see how the program is going. This PAL program is offered to all of the PAL after school participants but only takes 50 youth based on first come. This program is held every year at Eppes Recreation Center on 5th and Nash Street.
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PAL Sports
The fourth PAL program that was started is the PAL Barons baseball team. PAL started out by sponsoring a t-ball team for youth ages 5-8 in the Jackie Robinson league in the spring of 2008. In the spring of 2009 PAL decided to move up in ages and sponsor a baseball team for youth ages 9-12. This baseball team has 13 players and is coached by three officers and the PAL coordinator.
PAL has also just started sponsoring 4 football teams in the Junior Developmental Football League which is the sixth program in which PAL has involvement in. The 4 football teams are broken down by ages and serve at risk youth ages 5-13. All four teams put together serve about 110 youth. Every team has at least one assistant coach including a police officer but there are other police department employees who assist with the teams.
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PAL 100 Cops / 100 Kids
During the Fall of 2008, ECU offered PAL 100 football tickets and this is how we started our 100 cops 100 kids program. This program is offered to all youth who are involved in PAL. Since that first football game PAL has taken its participants to ECU basketball & baseball games, as well as a Kinston Indians baseball game. On average there have been about 60 participants and about 20 officers and PAL staff that have attended the program. Every 100 cops 100 kids program offered by PAL gets more and more youth.
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PAL Dances
Our sixth program that we added to PAL is a dance in which any youth ages 8-15 can attend. The PAL dance is held at our two sites and has on average about 160 youth come out. The dances are held about once a month and serve as a fundraiser for our PAL programs. There is a charge at the door that is about $4 and there are also refreshments and snacks that the youth can buy for about $.50 an item. At every dance there are about 5-10 police officers and 5-10 PAL staff that help run the dance as well as the police officers who are on patrol who stop by and check on everything.
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The Greenville PAL program has grown from reaching 100 youth with a summer camp to reaching 200-350 at risk youth all in one day. All of the programs that PAL offers reach out to youth who are at risk and are ran by the best that Greenville, NC has to offer.
If you have any questions about a PAL program please call Megan Butler at 252-329-4384, email at mbutler@greenvillenc.gov, or write to:
Attn: Megan ButlerPAL ProgramGreenville Police DepartmentPO Box 7207Greenville, NC 27835