Detroit's Police Athletic League is making progress on turning the old Tiger Stadium site into a new "Field Of Dreams." What PAL is planning for the site and how you can help raise money to make the dream come true for children. Click the video player to see JoAnne Purtan's interview on 7 Action News at Noon.
Detroit's PAL broke ground last week on the project that calls for a new sports complex and banquet center at the hallowed grounds that were once home to Tiger Stadium.
PAL is now trying to meet a fundraising goal of $20 Million to boost program and provide better services for kids who may use that site and participate in other PAL programs.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
PAL CEO Tim Richey told JoAnne Purtan the theme is "kids at the corner" for the combination sports complex and banquet center. You can help by checking out their crowdrise fundraising page at www.kidsatthecorner.com
PAL says the plan is to create a state-of-the-art, 2,500 seat sports complex at the former Tiger Stadium site, complete with dugouts, lights for evening games, a scoreboard, PAL offices and an on-site banquet hall and food preps for fundraisers and corporate events to serve as a revenue stream for Detroit PAL as well.
The big groundbreaking event took place Wednesday, April 13th, at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was joined by numerous dignitaries, sport team mascots, children in the PAL program and more.
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The sports complex is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2017. For more on the group and it's plan click the link: http://detroitpal.org/
The field will be made of artificial turf a decision that has caused some controversy. But PAL says it made af a thorough analysis of options, including surveys with numerous schools and universities that utilize synthetic fields.
Detroit PAL says it " reaches every neighborhood in the city, 12,000 children a year, with the help of more than 1,800 PAL volunteers who logged 250,000 hours in volunteer time last year. An important aspect of the volunteerism is that half of the volunteers are African American men, who are part father figure and part mentor in the programs for the children."
PAL says the goal is to" teach life lessons in addition to the fundamentals of sports. Research shows that, nationally, children who participate in after-school mentoring programs have a higher graduation rate from school than those who don't."
