Getting by with a
little help from PAL

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

The Police Athletic League has been a fixture of Jonathan Drummond’s life for so long that the Olney teen can’t even remember exactly when he first walked through the doors of the Gibbons PAL Center in Lawndale.
By Drummond’s own reckoning, he was about 10 when he joined the program. But mom Michelle Drummond says he was more like 6 years old.
Apparently, time really flies for a guy in the midst of a seemingly endless string of personal achievements.
Drummond, 17, added another award to his already vast collection last Thursday when he was honored as PAL’s Athlete of the Year during the organization’s annual media luncheon at the Wachovia Center.
When asked by PAL officer Steve Brennan how many times he had helped guide Gibbons to the organization’s citywide soccer and baseball championships, Drummond could only estimate "about five." Individually, Drummond won local and regional competitions in the Phillies Home Run Derby contest and placed third in the finals at Citizens Bank Park.
Drummond is a force outside of PAL, too, as the Engineering and Sciences High School junior is an award-winning member of his school’s cross-country, indoor track and baseball teams. He has even taken his athletic skills into "open" competitions like the Philadelphia Distance Run and the Thomas Eakins Rowing Competition.
This is not to say that Drummond is just another "jock." Rather, family and PAL officials say, his biggest accomplishment has been developing himself as a well-rounded young man with an extremely bright future.
"Jon is an exceptional person and athlete," said Officer Tony Daulerio, director of Gibbons PAL. "He’s very driven. He’s a sportsman. He conducts himself very well, and he’s a leader, too. He’s a quiet leader."
According to Drummond, PAL wasn’t his first experience with community youth sports. First, he played football for a local midget football program. But Michelle Drummond and dad Lionel Drummond decided they wanted something more diverse and structured for their son, whom they were home-schooling at the time.
In addition to Jon, the couple have sons Desmond, 13, and Marshall, 11, and a daughter, Sierra, 8.
Another home-school mom mentioned the Gibbons PAL baseball team to Michelle.
"We needed some type of gym or athletic activity," she said. "PAL taught him team activities and gave him a balance of knowing how to win graciously and lose graciously."
Jon Drummond found that the PAL offers a lot more than team sports. There’s also a weight room and a lot of non-sports activities. Though no longer home-schooled, he still makes it a point to take advantage of the opportunities PAL has to offer.
"I try to go there at least twice a week, and if I’m in a sport (season), it might be four times a week," he said.
In accepting his award, Drummond noted that no such activities would be available without the dedication of the officers in the program.
"I appreciate how you all make it possible for others, for kids like me, to enjoy the sports that we play," Drummond said. "I’m just one of hundreds. This is a solution. We don’t have to be out on the streets. We can be at PAL and play."
Few know that better than Lionel Drummond, who credits the PAL program for helping him stay clear of trouble as a youth growing up in North Philadelphia.
"It was a safe place to go. There were gang wars, and it was a place you could go to get away from the chaos," the father said.
Lionel Drummond appreciates the many lessons that Gibbons PAL has taught his son, whether it be in sports like basketball and soccer or more mental activities like math club and chess club.
"There’s a discipline there," he said. "Once in a while, you may have a group of children come in who are rowdy or may not act in the community spirit, but there’s a police officer there, and they’re warned."
In his time at PAL, the younger Drummond has met other youths from many areas of the city and from many races and personal backgrounds.
"There’s a diversity there," Lionel Drummond said. "They have different ideas and ideologies, and they can sit down and talk about it. They don’t have an idea of thinking bad about each other because they’re so young. Even the parents get along."
New Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey also is a big PAL supporter. During the awards ceremony, he vowed to continue to back the program, which features 27 community centers throughout the city.
He believes that today’s kids get a bad rap because of the actions of a relative few. But the good ones deserve a place to go to realize their potential.
"The majority of our kids are doing the right things every single day, and they’re doing the right things because of PAL and other organizations," Ramsey said.
Drummond wasn’t the only honoree.
James Hayes, a 17-year-old from Logan PAL, was named Academic Achiever of the Year. He has overcome a form of autism to earn a 3.5 grade-point average at Pathway High School in Norristown, and he has the distinction of being one of the top chess players in the PAL program.
Hayes, the overall chess champion in 2006, has been an annual finalist.
Lt. Susan Slawson, commander of PAL, presented a trophy to members of the 1st Police District in South Philadelphia for raising the most money, $10,135, among all districts in the annual PAL Drive.
Slawson also announced that the family of slain Officer Chuck Cassidy would receive proceeds from the annual PAL raffle, held in November.
The late Sam Schroeder, a former Comcast SportsNet executive and public-relations chairman of the PAL board of directors, received the second annual Sally Berlin Spotlight Award for helping keep PAL in the public consciousness.
Schroeder’s wife, Donna, accepted the award and announced the creation of the Sam Schroeder Memorial Scholarship to benefit PAL kids seeking to pursue an education in the communications field.
Slawson named Office Sharon Wells as PAL Officer of the Year. Wells routinely works 12-to-14-hour days at PAL and does whatever it takes to get kids to program events, even if it means picking them up at their homes, Slawson said.
PAL serves about 25,000 young people throughout the city, 35 percent of whom are girls. Donations to PAL are tax-deductible.
For more information about the program, call 215-291-9000, Ext. 109. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com