By Detective Marvin Rich, (article written in 1966)

In 1947 many Irvington (N. J.) police officers began dreaming of having their own PAL building, a place for the children of the community to pass their idle time. This dream was realized after many drives for a building by the original director, Officer Joseph Marke, who is now a sergeant in the Patrol Division, when the Irvington PAL purchased their present building on December 20, 1963. The building, today valued in excess of $200,000, has an up-to-date gym, weight lifting room, teen lounge, hand ball courts, and a Health Club complete, with steam rooms and a full-time masseur.

In order to purchase the building, it was necessary to acquire two mortgages, and the question of paying them off became a large factor. Application was placed with the United Community Fund of Essex and West Hudson, and was _.accepted. Today this agency supplements our PALwith monies which are used for the children's activities. However, this was not enough and application was placed before the Legalized Games of Chance Division of the State of New Jersey and a license secured to run a bingo game. This was the real life line for our  PAL. This game is currently held each Monday night with a minimum of three hundred people attending. With this, the PAL functions in the black, with no financial problems other than a close watch on expenditures.

The PAL has a Board of Directors, consisting of thirty members, twenty of whom are police officers. The remaining ten are civilians from the community. The current president is Detective Dominick Anicito.

We continue to expand all programs for the children of the community, over fifteen hundred of whom are members. The activities cover a wide area, with baseball, basketball and football being the main sports.

The baseball program covers twelve teams with fifteen boys on each teams. The managers are all local police or citizens who volunteer their time.

Our basketball program includes thirty teams. Through the cooperation of the local Board of 'Education, three elementary schools are used for this activity.

Football is perhaps the most important of all sports for the Irvington PAL. We fully uniform more than eighty-five boys with the best equipment money can buy. The Irvington PAL Colts, under the excellent coaching of Capt. Robert H. Miller of the Irvington Police, are known nationwide. In 1965 the Colts came in fifth nationally in the Pop Warner Scholastic and Football Championships. Our team has won thirty-five of their last thirty-six games.

Other activities include a bowling program, which serves one hundred children, our own band of twenty-five members, cheerleaders, both senior and 'junior girls, a color guard of thirteen girls, thirty-five senior and thirty junior girl twirlers. We also have acrobatics, archery, arts and crafts three times a week, ballet and tap dancing for young girls, hand ball, physical fitness program, and weight lifting.

We run Halloween parties, Christmas parties and an Easter Egg Hunt which is attended by more than six hundred young children.

This summer we have set up a swimming program with the cooperation of the American Red Cross in an attempt to teach some four hundred children how to swim. This was made possible through the cooperation of local builder who granted us permission to use his pool during the morning hours.

Besides these activities, we sponsor a Cub Scout Pack, and a local Girl Scout troop uses our building for meetings. We allow any organization which benefits youth to use our gym for barn dances, etc.

The backbone of our PAL is the Women's Auxiliary, of which Mrs. Marion Miller is president. Its more than one hundred members are very active in assisting in all phases of our program. Local merchants have backed our PAL by sponsoring team's and contributing in other ways.

Chief of Police Patrick J. Keating is also a members of our Board of Directors and has cooperated one hundred percent in the PAL's operation This summer he has assigned two additional men to assist with the full summer program.

The printed program below shows the breath of activities spawned by the Irvinton PAL