Page 50 - FOP March 2017 Newsletter

Members Only Section
Cops-Kids basketball games seek to start new tradition
n BY NICK SWEDBERG
n PHOTOS BY JAMES PINTO
A team of local youngsters held the lead for much of a recent community basketball game against 20th District officers before the cops squeaked out a last-minute vic- tory.
The ultimate winners, however, were the 13 players from the Pedersen-McCormick Boys & Girls Club who welcomed police to their club for the game in February. Organizers and participants saw the contest as the start of a new tradition connecting the neighborhood and the officers who patrol it.
The game was organized by 46th Ward Alderman James Cappleman and 48th Ward Alderman Harry Osterman, but was dreamed up by Abdul Wahab, a 15-year-old who has been an active part of the Boys & Girls Club for years, according to 20th District Commander Sean Loughran.
“We’re going to make it an annual thing. We’ve already committed to do more with the Boys & Girls Clubs,” Loughran said, adding that his wish is to see more pos- itive interactions between youth and officers. “When I got here last year, we started doing a number of different events trying to focus on kids. You know you’re building a good relationship when they’re young.”
In the past year, Loughran’s district has participated in both summer and after-school sporting events, movies
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Fifteen-year-old Abdul Wahab (second from right) came up with the idea for he and other members of the Pedersen-McCormick Boys & Girls Club to play a basketball game against o cers from the 20th District.
in the park and even a theater program with children, he said, noting police around the city are involved in similar initiatives. The youth basketball game, while put togeth- er by Wahab and the aldermen’s offices, falls in line with the kinds of activities he wants to see more of in the 20th, Loughran said, adding that the officers treated the kids to a pizza party after the game.
Even though such positive events have been going on for years, promotion on social media has helped in- crease awareness to the community on a larger scale, the Commander explained. What stood out even more to Loughran was the response from his officers.
“The thing that was the most touching about it, from a police perspective, is that I had an overwhelming number of guys who wanted to do it,” he said. d