For years, the former Lower Paxton Youth Center sat abandoned with weeds and kudzu taking over the playground and buildings.
Neighbors helped keep a path to the swing set cleared so a young man with special needs could make his daily pilgrimage there, where he would swing as high as he could.
His path became more inviting after the Harrisburg Area Police Athletic League (HAPAL) acquired the property and began cleaning it up. Now, the young man can venture each day to a freshly painted swing set surrounded by other refurbished playground equipment and picnic tables in a tranquil setting next to a baseball field with new dirt and mown grass.
HAPAL CEO Dr. Charles Stuart and his wife Ann watch with pleasure as that young man sails high in the sky and as others from the community venture to HAPAL’s new home, which was dedicated on Aug. 3, after nearly a year of painstaking work to reclaim the property.
Before the organization could obtain the youth center, baseball field and playground through an organizational merger, HAPAL mentored from a location at 6th and Maclay streets in Harrisburg. The Stuarts had seen the abandoned Lower Paxton property, but it took time to track down the property information and negotiate a deal. Eventually, their work paid off with a $1 property transfer purchase to HAPAL.
“This allows us to reach more people in the Dauphin County area,” Stuart said.
The Stuarts and a few volunteers put in “hours and hours and hours” of sweat equity. It involved cleaning up dead mice and feces in the youth center building, evicting a raccoon family from the attic space, and repainting everything. It included replacing the water system, installing security cameras and reclaiming the property both from the weeds and from undesirable activities near it.
Now, Stuart, a retired law enforcement officer, has a big, safe space to support sports teams and education programs for Harrisburg-area youth.
He and James Jones, a football legend at Harrisburg and USC, joined HAPAL in 2014 and worked to revitalize a program that had withered. They rebuilt the board and relationships with sponsors and the community. COVID and a search for baseball fields and a permanent home clouded their vision until the new property materialized.
Blessed
The Lower Paxton Youth Center was developed in the 1950s on property left by the Wood family, who wanted it set aside for community and youth activities. The center saw a variety of uses through the years, including as a music club for teenagers and a church, but it had been empty for a long time.
“Dr. Stuart got hold of me, and it seemed like a natural transition—healthy guidance and recreation for young adults, which was what the youth center was doing,” said Link Martin, the lone remaining board member of the Lower Paxton Youth Center who now sits on the HAPAL board. “It’s great to see it be used again as a resource for young people in the community.”
While Craig Heilman—who was familiar with the baseball field—donated his time and equipment to re-create the baseball field, the Pennbrook Board of Recreation and Swatara Township offered HAPAL baseball fields to use.
“We’ve been blessed with people like that,” Stuart said.
HAPAL is mentoring about 130 Harrisburg-area children through sports—this summer, it ran seven baseball teams and has had track and basketball teams—and education.
“Part of the education is finding out how people feel about the police,” Stuart said. “We are building a relationship to show that law enforcement officers are human, too, and the police want to help you.”
Stuart said HAPAL has excellent relationships with local police departments, and every December, it hosts Shop with Cops, when close to 80 area law enforcement officers take children Christmas shopping at Walmart, which sponsors the event.
Edith Cook, HAPAL’s education coordinator, works with children in groups, one-on-one, and together with parents using a curriculum provided by the national Police Athletic League on a variety of topics, from limiting social media to preparing for next steps in life.
HAPAL aims to involve young children and follow them from 5 through 17. By doing this, they feel they can have the most significant influence. Some of the older teens have been able to attend national youth conferences.
“If the kids get the help now, they won’t need it as an adult,” Cook said.
She took one of her mentees, Mar’kyi Madden, a 10th-grader at Susquehanna Township High School, to a youth conference in Washington, D.C., in 2023 and again to Charlotte, N.C., in 2024. Madden said that he enjoyed being able to get away from Harrisburg, meet people and have fun. The session about going to college and getting a degree inspired him to be “more focused on school,” he said.
While baseball is the most active group within HAPAL, they are looking for coaches and mentors for other sports. They also have children interested in boxing, dance, writing poetry and music and offer healthy cooking classes in the youth center kitchen.
The goal is to find enough volunteers to have regular hours at the center, which has video game consoles, a large TV, books, games, an electric keyboard and much more.
On a late summer evening, children drilled on the baseball field under the direction of coach Marvin Dones. A shy youngster balked at taking the field, and Dones called out, “C’mon. Leaders lead. You can’t lead from over here on the sideline.” At the end of practice, the Stuarts opened the concession stand, passing out drinks and popsicles.
Dones’ son, Jacob, a sophomore at Lock Haven University, is a peer mentor and won HAPAL’s first Angel Mercado-Ocasio scholarship, named for a former PAL child who died in a tragic dugout accident at a Harrisburg baseball field last spring.
JaTanna Parrish, a parent of one of the young baseball players, is happy her child has HAPAL.
“It’s a great tool to make friends, burn energy and learn skills throughout life,” she said.
The Harrisburg Area Police Athletic League is located at 100 Elmwood Dr., Harrisburg (Lower Paxton Township). For more information, visit www.harrisburgareapal.org or on Facebook.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
