by Asher Joseph The New Haven independent
“5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” 115 campers in the Police Activity League’s annual summer program chanted as Mayor Justin Elicker and Police Chief Karl Jacobson braced for impact against a bucket of green slime, courtesy of PAL Director Sgt. Ron Ferrante.
That was the scene Thursday afternoon at John S. Martinez School in Fair Haven, where PAL has been hosting its annual five-week summer camp for New Haven children ages 8 to 11. This summer, the camp has grown to serve over 100 campers, guided by 34 youth counselors hired through the city’s Youth@Work program.
PAL hosts programming year-round, including classes on flag football, jiujitsu, boxing, hockey, chess, reading, and even video games.
Ferrante, who has served as the program’s director since 2019, came up with the idea of Slime Day to celebrate the end of this summer’s camp. “We do athletics, but we also try to be hands-on. And, the thought was, I’m retiring this year, and if you start making some slime, you’ve got to slime an officer.”
Ferrante said that, the second he asked his campers, “Who wants to slime a police officer?,” everyone’s hands went up. Ferrante stressed the importance of breaking down barriers between officers and the kids they serve. “They get to see that human side of us acting like kids.”
In preparation for the sticky situation, Elicker swapped his button-down for a blue jersey. “Apparently I’m going to get slimed along with [Chief Jacobson]. It’s about community service, man,” he laughed.
Elicker echoed Ferrante, recognizing PAL’s influence on the New Haven community’s relationship with the police department: “Oftentimes, in today’s world, there’s a lot of rhetoric about police officers that is just not true. And this is an opportunity to show that our police officers are also parents, our police officers are also members of our community, they’re our neighbors.”
Aside from building connections between police officers and New Haven’s youngest constituents, Jacobson has noticed other benefits to PAL’s structure.
“We have 34 teenage workers from the city working with us, so we’re not just building relationships with the young kids, we’re giving the teenage kids jobs that they need, and their jobs are learning how to lead younger people,” said Jacobson. “This is a win-win for the city.”
He also shared that PAL was not only empowering its counselors, but inspiring its campers: “I have a lot of kids here talking about being cops one day. We need that. We need officers from this city — diverse groups of officers from this city — and we’ve been doing that already, and it’s working out.”
After waiting for their slime victims to arrive, the campers cheered as Ferrante amped up the crowd. “Raise your hand if you’ve ever wanted to slime a police officer.”
“Now, raise your hand if you ever wanted to slime the mayor.” Campers gasped as they stretched their fingers higher.
“There’s one more, even better! Raise your hand if you ever wanted to slime the chief of police.” The excitement was palpable.
Before taking his seat, Elicker asked the campers for mercy: “I’ve never done this before, so I’m a little nervous, but I’m still going to get slimed. Are guys going to be nice to me?”
The campers answered with a bucket of fluorescent slime — powder and water, according to Ferrante — that might as well have been radioactive. Resounding cheers echoed through the gym as the campers rubbed the slime onto the heads of Jacobson, Elicker, and Ferrante, ensuring that they got the full effect of the slime.
As the slime squad toweled off, the campers headed outside to enjoy a cold treat from the Ice Cream Emergency truck.
“I really like making the slime, so this was my favorite part of camp. It was so fun!” shared Mimi, 7, who was debating ice cream flavors with her friends. “Can you imagine ice cream that tasted like slime?”
Evan and London, ages 11 and 12, found that they had not outgrown the fun. “I mean, I didn’t know if I’d like it at first, but it was great!”
“I’ve never seen the mayor before, so this was a pretty funny first time,” said London. When asked about what it was like to see counselors get slimed, she laughed. “Now, that was even funnier.”
Elicker and Jacobson soak in the slime.
Campers were eager to slime their counselors.
Mimi and her friends imagine slime ice cream.
Evan and London lean into the spirit of slime day.