Published: July 25, 2008 05:49 pm      

NIAGARA FALLS: Golf fundraiser keeps PAL in the green

Annual event should raise more than $12,000 for the Niagara Police Athletic League

The Niagara Police Athletic League is is gearing up for its third annual Great Niagara Steakout. It’s part golf tournament, part clambake, part dinner and part auction — but it’s all for the community, said Art Eberhart, director of the Niagara PAL.

“It’s a little unique, it’s a little different, which we like to think we are,” Eberhart said. “It encompasses everybody and everything. From small business owners to kids, that mix encompasses everything we do.”

For $75, golfers, ranging from young novices to old experts, will play 18 holes at Hyde Park Golf Course and head to Cenotaph Park where clams, silent auction and raffle items will await them before a chicken and steak dinner.

This year, about 200 golfers are signed up — more than double what the event pulled in 2006, its first year. And at $12,000 raised last year, the annual golf tournament and dinner has grown to becomes the Niagara PAL’s biggest fundraising event. Other fundraisers year-round help too, but the organization has grown to rely on the Great Niagara Steakout.

“If we didn’t have it, we would still exist, but we wouldn’t exist as well,” Eberhart said. “Something would have to suffer. We try to support the scholarship program out of this money, so that would suffer.”

Last year, the Niagara PAL gave away more $10,000 in scholarships to high school students all over Western New York. Despite its name, the organization, is as much academic in focus as it is athletic, Eberhart said.

“Half of what we do isn’t athletic. We do a youth forum, youth court, youth literacy — we do a wide variety of events and programs,” Eberhart said. “And I think the Steakout is saying the same thing: ‘Come on and golf. We don’t care who are you or what you are.’ It doesn’t matter if your handicap is 100 or 2.”

Police Superintendent John Chella, who is serving as co-chairman of the event, said the PAL gives law enforcement a chance to break down negative stereotypes teenagers may have of police officers.

“It exposes the police department in a different vein to these kids,” Chella said. “It exposes us as humans. We’re police men but we’re humans and we really care about these kids. We’re really trying to develop a personal relationship between these kids and the department.”

Chella, a golfer himself, said the annual tournament is worth the $75 entrance fee.

“I participate in a lot of tournaments throughout the year and I rank this one right up there,” he said. “It’s an affordable tournament for your money. You’re getting a lot.”

Some of the more than 100 prizes patrons can win will include a Seneca Niagara Casino package for an overnight stay, Sabres tickets for seats next to the bench and a Sabres hockey stick.





IF YOU GO

• WHAT: The Niagara Police Athletic League’s annual Great Niagara Steakout

• WHERE: Hyde Park Golf Course

• WHEN: Aug. 6. For new registrants, tee time is 7:30 a.m. The noon tee time is booked. Clams at 4:30 p.m. Dinner at 5 p.m.

• COST: $75 per golfer, includes dinner. $35 to attend dinner without golfing. To sign up call 286-7038.

• ON THE WEB: http://www.niagarapal.com/golf.htm