About PICO

PICO was founded in 1998 by Aitaoto ‘Ace’ Salu. With the assistance of Tafito Salu and Fa’asaoina Talalemotu, these three men were the visionary behind an impactful program. As former athletes, their philosophy is to use sports to educate, teach and mentor our youth to succeed.

The Pacific Island Community of Oregon started its annual sports camp in 1999 to educate, empower and encourage youth, especially Pacific Islander/American children, to be proud of their culture and heritage.

Our summer camp is five days of enhancing athletic skills, broadening social skills, and providing a safe, drug-free environment.

At camp, the youth learn and begin demonstrating positive leadership, team-building skills, and social appropriateness and are taught role modeling for younger peers.

PICO Football Players
In 1998, PICO, in a collaborative effort with the International Refugee Center of Oregon (IRCO) and with a grant from the city of Portland, funded the first PICO Learning Center that served over 100 Asian and Pacific Islander students of the Portland Public School District.

The Learning Center provided an after-school homework club, tutoring, arts and crafts, computer access, and many more activities. As a result, many students who attended dramatically improved their grade point average, which was the goal of the PICO Learning Center.

Through empowerment strategies and group-building activities, we teach individuals in our program to advocate for themselves.

PICO campers having fun
Sports was the tool that bought these youth to camp. But as each student found out, PICO camp is much more than learning to play a sport. Understanding the life lessons coaches and guest speakers teach daily will make a difference in their young lives.

PICO prohibits discrimination based on age, color, creed, disability, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.

Football players on a field