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Download the Specialty Tag Form here

Buy a Police Athletic League License Tag:
Invest in a Child’s Future
Florida has specialty license tags for every thing you can think of—all
good causes and worthwhile. To someone in the midst of making a decision
on which to support, may we say, “What better choice could you make than
investing in a child’s future?” That’s what the Police Athletic League
(PAL) tag does: it directly funds beneficial programs for Florida’s
youth.
We
want good things for our children. We want them to be good citizens, do
well in school, and have successful lives. We know that children need
help and guidance to achieve these things. Through PAL, a non-profit,
juvenile delinquency prevention organization, law enforcement officers
and caring volunteers mentor and encourage children in
character-building activities. PAL’s slogan is “Filling playgrounds, not
prisons,” because PAL has always believed that preventing trouble is
better than cleaning it up afterwards.
Why
buy a PAL specialty license tag? The simple answer is because your
support helps Florida’s youth. Proceeds from the tag sales fund the
State of Florida Association of Police Athletic Leagues (SFAPAL) college
scholarships and numerous PAL programs, which are designed to enrich
children’s lives—programs that range from traditional sports, like
boxing, basketball and football, to after-school programs, leadership
training, and community service programs.
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The Outstanding Lake Worth PAL Youth Directors
with their Officer Mike Mahoney. |
But
don’t just take our word for it that PAL is worthwhile. Listen to
eleventh-grader Tacoi Sumlar, a PAL kid from Florida City Police
Athletic League in the Miami area, and also an adept, award-winning wide
receiver for his Gulliver Preparatory School football team, as he
talks about PAL on You Tube:
“When
I started off,” Tacoi says on the thirty-second You Tube spot, “I
thought PAL was about community service. I could get the community
service [hours] I needed for school. Quickly, I learned it was more than
that. PAL helped me to learn that you should be a leader, not a
follower. It helped me on the football field, too. I was always good,
but I didn’t have the voice to go along with it. Now I’ve stepped up to
be a leader, and people look up to me.”
Tacoi
joined the Police Athletic League when he was thirteen so he could earn
community service hours, but when he attended his first PAL Youth
Directors’ Conference in Orlando, his perspective on PAL changed.
“I
learned so much from just one convention,” Tacoi had written in a letter
to the PAL state office earlier this year. I learned that PAL was more
than just a way to earn community service. It is a program to help kids
of today and tomorrow.”
He saw
all the programs that are anti-gun and anti-gang. He saw that PAL was
helping kids stay off the streets and showing them that they could get
along with police officers. He also began looking up to the PAL kids on
the Youth Conference Committee (the YCC), the youth committee that plans
and runs the SFAPAL’s annual youth conference.
Getting on that committee became his goal. Then it happened! “Being
appointed to the YCC was probably the best thing that has happened to me
in PAL,” he wrote, “because it has led to so many great things for me.
Not only do I continue to learn more about the dangers of drugs and
alcohol and gangs, but I’ve received professional speaking lessons from
the best. The training for the YCC not only trains you for PAL, but it
trains you for life.”
And
listen to a dedicated PAL officer who is actively involved in working
with PAL kids, Officer Jose Flores, Coral
Gables Police Department, who speaks out for PAL on You Tube:
“When
I tell people I’m an officer and working with PAL, they say, ‘Yeah,
PAL’s that program that plays basketball and football.’ But I tell them
it’s more than that,” he said on this thirty-second video that you can
hear and see on You Tube. “We’re not just teaching sports—we’re teaching
life. We’re teaching kids to become men and women in their community,
productive citizens. That’s what’s important to us, so please help us
help these kids by purchasing a PAL tag at your local tag agency.”
These
video spots on You Tube are very effective tools for getting the word
out about PAL and the PAL tag. Thank you Tacoi and Officer Flores!
Lake Worth PAL Youth Directors and Their Great Tag Promotion Campaigns
The
plan on July 23, 2009, was to set up a display table near the checkout
lines inside a Publix in Lake Worth to talk to shoppers about the PAL
specialty license tag. Eight Lake Worth Youth Directors joined Deputy
Mike Mahoney, who is the president of the board of directors at Lake
Worth PAL, behind the table for five hours on that day.
“The
kids approached people with the little flyer about the tag, explaining
what the tag was,” Deputy Mahoney said. The kids weren’t selling tags
that day, but only hoping to get people interested enough to sign a form
stating they would consider buying a PAL license tag.
“We
got at least twenty-five or thirty [signed forms],” Deputy Mahoney said.
A good day’s work!
More
recently, September 26, 2009, Deputy Debbie Wilson helped the YDC kids
campaign for the tag at a different location. Deputy Wilson serves as
treasurer on the Lake Worth PAL board of directors and also as
coordinator of the Youth Directors’ Program at Lake Worth PAL.
“It
was the opening day event for our brand-new football field at Memorial
Park in Lake Worth,” she said. “It was a good day to hold the tag
promotion, to incorporate the tag drive along with the opening day for
the field. They put up a stone dedicating the field to the PAL Warriors
[Lake Worth PAL’s football team]. They had a ribbon-cutting, had the
mayor, city commissioners, PAL football tackle team, the parents,
citizens who came out to show support—everybody was there.”
Deputy
Wilson and nine of the Youth Directors set their tag promotion table up
in a pavilion adjacent to the food concession, a PAL fundraiser. “It was
a perfect place,” Deputy Wilson said. “We had an overwhelming response.
The one thing I did notice was the surprise to see how many citizens
were not aware that this tag was available to them. When they found out,
they were very supportive and they said this was a great thing. When
they realized those monies were being used for youth programs, we got an
overwhelming response of people signing up.”
“We’re
very proud of our YDC kids,” Deputy Wilson said. “They do an excellent
job. This [tag campaigning] is not the only thing they do. They do trash
clean ups; they are mentors to an after-school program—they’re involved
in numerous activities within our city to better our community. Whenever
we ask them to do something or set something up, they are there 100%
with support, not to mention they can’t wait to find out when the next
event is going to be. We’ve got a great group of kids.”
Officer Wilson was very complimentary about Publix allowing them to use
their store to campaign. “They are always more than willing to assist
us. This isn’t the first time we’ve done a Publix tag drive. We have
never been turned down from any organization. A couple of years in a
row, we had a bank that was willing to help us set up to promote a tag
drive. When it comes to kids’ programs, people will help you,” she said.
Kids are a good investment! Good work, Lake Worth PAL!
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Pictured are Florida PAL Youth Directors
and their PAL Officers. Front row: Greg Berry, Ormond Beach
PAL, Cassandra Cage-Jacksonville PAL, Liza Creatura-Satellite
Beach PAL, and Kali Alexander- Ft. PiercePAL. Back row:
Officer Dave Adkins- New Smyrna Beach PAL, Officer Jose
Flores- Coral Gables PAL, and Officer Stephanie Patterson-
West Palm Beach PAL. |
PAL
Goes to the Florida Tax Collector’s Association Conference
This
year, PAL maintained a display table to promote the PAL specialty
license tag at the annual Florida Tax Collectors’ Association
Conference. What better place to inform people about the tag than at a
gathering of those who actually sell the tags? So, on September 13-16,
2009, at the Orlando Marriott Grande Lakes, amid all the vendors, the
classes, seminars, meetings, and distinguished speakers at the
conference, PAL was also present.
Mr. L.
B. Scott, executive director of the State of Florida Association of
Police Athletic/Activities Leagues (SFAPAL), had taken the big PAL tag
display board and had everything set up to inform the tax collectors and
their staff about the Police Athletic League specialty tag. He intended
to be there for the entire conference, but because of illness in the
family, he was called away. Fortunately, two stalwart SFAPAL Board of
Directors’ officers came to the rescue: President Leslee Brimer and
Past-president Commander Mel Williams. Ms. Brimer came directly over
that Sunday evening, stayed through Monday at the table, when Commander
Williams relieved her for the following day, Tuesday. She was back again
on Wednesday and stayed until the end of the conference.
“We
gave away T-shirts that said ‘The Florida PAL Tag,” and little trinkets,
and talked to the tax collectors and also their staff that worked for
them,” Ms. Brimer said. “So we promoted PAL. A lot of people were
surprised and pleased. They didn’t really know what PAL was or what it
worked toward. We came back with some positive input; Mr. Scott got some
phone calls, and we collected cards, and so it was a good promotional
week for PAL to get the name out there. I’ve encouraged Mr. Scott to do
it again. I think this was the first time we’ve ever done it, and it’s
something that we need to continue. I’ve always said, ‘We’re the best
kept secret,’ and we need to change that.”
Thank
you, Ms. Brimer and Commander Williams, for stepping into the void at
the last minute. They saved the day! They both set aside their own
agendas to be available to represent PAL.
Some
good news from Commander Mel Williams: He announced mid-October that he
is retiring from the Titusville Police Department to serve at Bethune
Cookman University as chief of their police department. SFAPAL will not
lose Commander Williams, as he will continue to serve as past-president
of the SFAPAL Board of Directors. We wish him success as his career
takes this new, exciting turn.
PAL
Seeks Funds from Tallahassee
Leslee
Brimer, SFAPAL board of directors’ president, and Mr. L. B. Scott,
SFAPAL executive director, represented and promoted PAL in Tallahassee
in meetings with the Department of Juvenile Justice and with the State
Attorney’s Office. “Hopefully, we will get some funding,” Ms. Brimer
said.
SFAPAL
stresses the importance of the PAL specialty license tag, as it is the
main funding tool for the organization’s programs for the children. But
PAL needs funding from other sources as well. “It was encouraging,” Ms.
Brimer said. “They are willing to talk. I know Mr. Scott is going to
follow up with some other meetings in Tallahassee to try and get our
name out there. We need to work as a whole for all the PALs, not just
State PAL, because we know that all the PALs are hurting.”
Support PAL by Buying a PAL Specialty License Tag
Your
PAL specialty license tag speaks volumes about your support for the
youth of Florida. Even parked, your tag says you are concerned about our
children’s future and are doing something positive to help. Buying a PAL
license tag makes you a partner with PAL to ensure that our state’s
youth reach their full potential.
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