Hot Off Press

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.”

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.