It doesn’t look like much now, but Lincoln Police Activities League co-founder Cheri Chiaratti has big dreams for an empty little trailer recently donated to the nonprofit group.

Lincoln PAL’s future snack shack on wheels will soon be outfitted with the works: a soda fountain, snow cone machine, popcorn maker, hot dog warmer, refrigerator, stovetop and charbroil grill, she said.

“I’ve been waiting for this since we started PAL,” Chiaratti said. ”We’ve been doing everything out of my garage and fifth wheel. This will finally give me my garage back.”

A concessions trailer formerly used for football games, the trailer was donated to PAL by the city of Lincoln’s parks and recreation department.

“It was probably 20 years old,” said Lincoln Police Lt. Paul Shelgren, also a PAL founder. “It got all rusted out and they were just going to get rid of it. But (assistant director of recreation) Mandy Walker knew we were into refurbishing and reusing stuff, and said, ‘Hey, do you want this thing?’”

A black and white paint job from Ace Body Shop spiffed up the exterior and a list of sponsors are lined up to perfect the inside.

PAL receives much of its funding from local business such as Ace, Nor-Cal Beverage and Big O Tires, and the white canvas of the trailer will eventually display those names, Chiaratti said.

“The sponsors have been awesome,” she said.

PAL was developed in the mid-1990s to foster positive relationships between youth and police officers, an objective its members accomplish through free monthly outdoor activities for kids ages 8 to 18, including campouts, high ropes courses, fishing derbies, baseball and field trips to museum tours and professional sports games, according to the nonprofit’s Web site.

The organization is maybe best-known for its annual summer event, Junior Giants Baseball, in which kids join teams and compete in games coached by local law enforcement and community volunteers July through September.

“We have so many activities planned and now we have a fully self-contained wagon ready to go,” said Shelgren, already looking ahead to the fall. “It will be just fantastic for the haunted house.”

That’s good news for Lincoln kids like 13-year old Martin Lopez, a longtime partaker in PAL events who knows Chiaratti as “Mama Cheri.”

“I love camping with PAL,” he said. “The food is always really good.”

For more information, go to www.lincolnpal.com.