BY GRACE WAHLE

PALS Advancement Coordinator

Happy New Year from the PALS Staff! We rang in 2023 at PALS Holiday in Los Angeles, California.

PALS Holiday first launched in 2017 on the east coast as off season programming for our community to reconnect and ring in the New Year together. This year we were thrilled to bring this program across the country at our first-ever PALS Holiday Los Angeles. This proved to be a great opportunity to engage with the local community of Los Angeles as one of our ten hubs outlined in the PALS Strategic Plan.

For 5 days and 4 nights, participants and leaders gathered at The Gold Creek Center. Mirroring our traditional summer programs, pairs of Participants were placed on teams with a Team Lead to guide them throughout the program. There is no better way to spend the holidays than at PALS! We sang our hearts out at karaoke, explored the local area, and built a close knit community during the program.

Our first off-campus day took us to Santa Monica. We went ice skating and rode the rides at the Santa Monica Pier. The activity proved to be a wonderful team building moment, as we witnessed the confidence of each Participant build on the ice and saw genuine friendships created. The whole day was a perfect encapsulation of the mission of PALS.

“I’ve never gotten closer to a group at camp. With so much time between summer camps, PALS Holiday is the perfect time to reconnect with the community that means so much to me.”

-PALS Holiday Peer

We also enjoyed a trip to The Academy of Motion Pictures, dining at a local Mexican restaurant called El Metate on New Year’s Eve, and teamed up with Club 21 for a PALS Pop-Up Event. You can find all the pictures here.

We are so grateful to have spent New Year’s Eve at PALS. An extra special thank you to Club 21 for hosting the PALS Pop-up event to share our programs with new families.

We are already getting ready for Summer 2023 and hope you will join one of our 19 programs across the country!