PAL board member Josh Haag hits one into the outfield while catcher Evan Kostohryz watches. Nevertheless, the youth team triumphed, 8-6. (Photo/Russ Hanson)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Thirteen Moorhead teens faced off against a squad of police last Friday, and the kids came out on top.
It was the first baseball match put together by PAL, Moorhead’s Police Athletic and Activities League, a volunteer group of law enforcement officers who come together with area youth to in fun, no-pressure settings. Put together by a cadre of community volunteers, the game at Matson Field marks another new step forward for the four-year-old nonprofit.
“PAL grew out of the cops-and-kids hockey games that have been going on since 2007,” explains executive director Scott Kostohryz, a patrol sergeant with the MPD. “We’re always looking for ideas to connect with teens in the community. Usually people first meet a cop on the worst day of their lives. Getting a chance to know each in positive settings can make a big difference when the chips are down.”
The teen team was made up of 13- through 15-year-olds, many recruited by summer teams already being coached by off-duty officers. As for their elders, most were active with MPD. Others represented the PAL board. Civilians also helped out, including seven members of the Moorhead Police Volunteers organization.
The baseball game, like many of the hockey matches, ended in victory for the younger players. “They beat us, 8 to 6,” Scott reports. “We tried. We were doing pretty well, with the bases loaded, when they did a little hidden-ball trick.” He notes it wasn’t strictly legal. “But we traditionally bend the rules just a little in favor of the kids.”
Longs months of pandemic disrupted the program in 2020, but the organization muscled on. “We got the hockey game in just before the lockdown. We had to discontinue our Explorers post,” he says. Over the summer, the volunteers had time on their hands, so, he says, they turned their attention to the bicycle give-aways that have become a regular feature. Pre-Covid, PAL had been refurbishing three to five a year from the cache of abandoned bikes that would otherwise be sold on the annual police vehicle auctions. In 2020, the number of young recipients soared to 33, the total boosted by not only their repairs but 10 new bikes donated by the Shriners.
PAL is keeping up the pace again this year. In coming days, they’ll be presenting 30 more bicycles to area youth, most in sixth through eighth grades.
Other traditions survived the pandemic, too, with some modifications. The annual “Shop with a Cop” event, in which officers take children shopping for gifts for their families, was amended to fit the times. Officers chatted with the 71 children selected last year, then shopped on their behalf. The gaily wrapped gifts were delivered to 36 families living at Churches United by Santa Claus in full dress uniform, sailing into the parking lot not behind reindeer but a phalanx of police cars with lights a-flashing.
Plans are underway to revive the Explorer post in September. The popular program, begun in 2005, connects 16- to 20-year-olds with an interest in law enforcement careers with working officers. Scott points out that MPD has hired a substantial number of young officers who have completed the program, along with earning degrees in the field. More than 250 young men and women have been Explorers in the past 16 years.
PAL is as popular with working officers as with the teens it targets. According to the executive director, 262 officers – mostly MPD, but also members of the Clay County Sheriff’s Department and Highway Patrol – have volunteered their time over just four years.
The board, however, is civilian from top to bottom, representing local schools, colleges and the Parks Department. “We don’t want to have police officers dictating programs they think might be a good idea. We want to hear ideas straight from members of our community,” he says. “My job is to listen … and to raise the money we need to make it happen.” He adds, “It’s amazing how much time and money it can take to do good.”
