ne day in the mid 1940's, while working at what was the 36th Police
District at Germantown Avenue and Lycoming Street, Sgt. Gus Rangnow
told a group of boys playing handball in a busy police parking lot
to play instead inside a big, old police locker room. Boys soon began
filling the room to capacity. Encouraged, Sgt. Rangnow went to area
businesses to find more space. He found a boxing ring, got a piano,
and started what would become his life's passion: Philadelphia youth.
During their off-duty hours Sgt. Rangnow and several of his fellow
police officers organized a neighborhood baseball team and a boxing
club to give boys loitering on street corners and in alleys something
better to do with their time. In a short time, hundreds of kids were
clamoring to play and the seeds of PAL had been firmly established.
In 1947, Police Superintendent Howard P. Sutton, based on the remarkable
success of Sgt. Rangnow's initiative, issued an order to all Captains
of the city's Police Districts to select a sport-oriented police officer
and send him to a meeting at the Mayor's Office in City Hall. The
purpose of the meeting was to initiate a police district sports program
to better promote relationships between the police and the youth of
the community.
PAL was formerly incorporated and chartered in 1949 with a mission
to foster and encourage. PAL's goal is to offer restless, rebellious
youth, headed towards juvenile delinquency, crime and the drug scene,
a choice of a better way to live--a choice for juvenile decency instead
of juvenile delinquency.
For those who chose the PAL way, it means a chance to spend time
on a basketball court instead of in a juvenile court; to steal second
base instead of a wallet; to be a part of a team instead of a gang.
Although all young people are made welcome at PAL, special emphasis
is placed on those who live in the disadvantaged areas of the city.
From its inception, no youngster has ever paid to join PAL or participate
in any of its activities, and all instruction and equipment is provided
without charge to the youngsters.
During its many years of existence, PAL has proven its effectiveness
as a force for good in the community, teaching thousands of youngsters
the importance of teamwork, fair play, good citizenship and respect
for law and authority. Over the years, thousands of boys and girls
have benefited from PAL. Many have gone on to notable careers in business
and industry, government and the judiciary, law enforcement, medicine,
entertainment, sports and the media. These youngsters made a choice
for juvenile decency--the PAL way.
This was the organization that was born out of a genuine concern
for youngsters by Sgt. Gus Rangnow. He set PAL on a path that it
continues to follow to this day, much to the benefit and delight
of the thousands of youth that PAL has and continues to serve. PAL
and the thousands of children that have passed through our doors
owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Sgt. Rangnow and to everyone
who continues to support our youth through PAL.
Gus Rangnow: A Friend of Children
"He was always involved with kids when he was a cop,"
says Tom Harrison, 69, of Crete Nebraska, one of Gus's 10 grandchildren.
Some might wonder why Gus had such a devotion to the welfare of
children. Perhaps it started when he was a child himself.
Gus Rangnow worked six days a week, 11 hours a day, packing stockings
in a Kensington hosiery factory. Gus was 11, but had had the face
of an old man who worked too long and slept too little. Childhood
seemed anything but happy.
In 1903, he was one of more than 22,000 children in the city's
textile mills making upholstery, carpets and shirts. On July 7,
1903 he joined 400 adults and children on a 125-mile march to protest
working conditions. This "children's army" formed the
nation's first juvenile workers' march. Mother Jones, the most fiery,
radical labor figure of the time was its commander.
Mother Jones thought it wise to seek an audience with President Theodore
Roosevelt and, to press the issue, took Gus along with two other boys
with her to the president's Long Island home on July 30. Once they
arrived, they were ushered into a private room by a secretary to the
president. Although they never got to see the president, the marchers
had raised public awareness to the plight of child workers and brought
that awareness to the president's front door. Six years later, their
protest led to the passage of stronger labor laws in Pennsylvania.
Through his childhood experiences, Gus knew better than most how
traumatizing life can be for children in the city.
When Gus grew up he served with the Army during World War I where
he doubtless saw more suffering by children on distant battlefields.
He became a police officer in Philadelphia where again he had occasion
to see the horrors that many children experience growing up in disadvantaged
communities.
Having seen so much suffering among children, including his own, it
is most fitting that Gus should be remembered for doing something
to help children realize a happy and productive life that many would
otherwise not experience.
There is a statue outside Police Headquarters entitled "A Friend".
It depicts a police officer holding a small child. While Gus wasn't
the model for the statue it best illustrates what he was all about.
In Gus Rangnow, the children of Philadelphia truly had "a friend."
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