Winter Garden police to hold Donut Dash 5k

For the past decade, the Winter Garden Police Athletic League, a nonprofit based in the Winter Garden Police Department, has made it its mission to improve the relationship between police officers and the public.

By being more involved in the community and organizing programs catered for children in low-income families, PAL hopes to create a strong bond with younger generations to promote the understanding that law enforcement exists to serve and protect the community.

“If you want to affect real positive change, start with elementary school-age children and you will affect change five to seven years from now,” said WGPD Officer Andrew Raphael, who became involved with the organization three years ago.

He personally volunteers his time in the organization’s various programs because, he said, it gives him the opportunity to provide programs and events for children and families that will “ultimately benefit people in need (to) make the community stronger.”

The league invests much of its effort in designing programs to aid low-income families and encourage children and teens to stay off the streets. However, its overall goal, Raphael said, is to provide officers the chance to interact with children in a “very positive, nontraditional manner.” The idea is that the positive interaction experienced at an early age will build trust in the police and encourage people to feel comfortable in any possible future encounters with police officers.

One of the programs the league hosts is the annual Holiday Gifts for Kids, in which they give about 400 local children from low-income families presents.

Another program it coordinates is an eight-week summer camp, which Raphael estimates serves 140 children from families who might struggle to make ends meet. PAL launched the camp to assist parents unable to financially afford to send their kids to a summer camp and have no choice but to leave them home alone while they work.

Two other programs are community basketball games and Cookies and Milk With a Cop, which is held monthly at the Winter Garden Library.

To make all its programs a reality, the Winter Garden Police Athletic League holds multiple fundraising events throughout the year. One upcoming event is the Donut Dash 5k, a family-friendly 5K run that encourages participants to both exercise and gorge on doughnuts. This year’s goal is to raise $15,000.

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Contact Gabby Baquero at [email protected].