Cape CopCast
Welcome to "The Cape CopCast," the official podcast of the Cape Coral Police Department.
Hosted by Officer Mercedes Simonds, and Lisa Greenberg from our Public Affairs team, this podcast dives into the heart of Cape Coral PD's public safety, community initiatives, and the inner workings of our police department. Each episode brings you insightful discussions, interviews with key community figures, and expert advice on safety.
Cape CopCast
Empowering Youth Through Sports: Officer Coby Palmer on the Cape Coral PAL Program
Officer Coby Palmer joins us on this episode of the Cape CopCast to talk about our department's Police Athletic League (PAL). This program is about building healthy lifestyles and positive relationships between Police Officers and the youth of Cape Coral.
With a background in sports management, Officer Palmer is the perfect guide through the transformative power of sports to connect at-risk youth and police officers. Cape Coral PAL, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has grown to support 29 kids, fostering a community that feels like family. We dive into Officer Palmer's personal journey and discover how PAL makes a real difference in young lives, while learning ways to contribute to this inspiring initiative.
We also cover upcoming events and fundraisers for PAL, including a charity softball event, a comedy show, and a collaborative 5K race. We discuss the different sports programs for kids, from basketball to archery to boxing to gymnastics.
Listen to the passion and dedication that fuels PAL's mission to uplift Cape Coral's youth, and find out how you can play a part in this empowering movement.
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Cop cast, the official podcast of the Cape Coral Police Department. I'm one of the hosts, lisa.
Speaker 2:Greenberg and I'm officer Mercedes Simons. Together we make up the public affairs office. Today we have a special guest officer, kobe Palmer. He is going to be telling us a little bit about the PAL program that we have going. Pal stands for the Police Athletic League.
Speaker 3:And I'll let him get into the nitty gritty. Well, first off, I'd like to say thanks for having me. This is an incredible studio. I like being here.
Speaker 1:We're happy to have you. I appreciate that. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 3:So I've been with the Cape Coral Police Department for 13 years now.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:I started out in patrol and then I was a school resource officer for six years, and now I currently run our Police Athletic League.
Speaker 1:That's awesome For people who don't know what is the Police Athletic League. So the Police.
Speaker 3:Athletic League is an extension of the department. What we do is through an endowment fund and also through scholarship. We sponsor kids that are either at risk or need our help in sports activities within the community and it helps deter them from maybe a life of crime down the road or making wrong decisions as they grow up. We kind of intercede and sponsor them in sporting events and do it that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds great. So if someone wanted to help and donate, how would they go about doing that?
Speaker 3:Well, a couple ways. We do have a website now. It's ccpdpalcom. You can go right on there as a donate button and you can also come to one of the many events I'm going to talk about that we have coming up in the next few months. But before I get into all that sort of stuff, I wanted to say why the PAL program to me is near and dear and why I think it's important not just for our agency to have but for all agencies in Florida.
Speaker 3:As a school resource officers I got to see kids on a daily basis, interact with them as a police officer from an elementary I was in middle school and I spent a little time at a high school. So that interaction of seeing them and understanding that if they trust a police officer and come to them for anything, that's the first step of building that relationship. At the elementary school level I loved playing recess with the kids. That was my connection Football, soccer, basketball. And when I would come into school the next day and the kids would get off the bus, they'd say Officer Palmer, you coming to recess today? And I started saying to myself wow, I really started having this connection through sport and ironically I actually have a sport management degree, a bachelor's degree, from UMass Amherst, so it's right up my alley and I enjoy it. That connection I started to build. I held and developed a basketball what I called an SRO skills camp in 2019. I did it for a couple of years we had 30 kids, then the next year 50, then 75 and over 100.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And we started gaining some interest and we said, okay, we have something here. So we got the cops out of their uniforms and, just like regular people, helping them teach basketball drills. I've coached basketball all my life at every different level, so it was comfortable for me and, as we were going forward, I wanted to start sponsoring some of these kids and things we have going on in the city. When I grew up, I played baseball and track and field and my parents came to all my events.
Speaker 3:As a young adult, my mom passed away and to this day, my fondest memory is her coming to my baseball games and to my track and field events. And now I get to do that with my kids and I get to do it for kids in the Police Athletic League that don't have the traditional family. They've lost family members. They have family members that may be in jail or aren't in town or can't financially come to that stuff. Well, I step in and as a program, we help them out and we're part of their lives, and that's what the most important part to me is about it.
Speaker 1:That's so amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw. I think it was Sergeant LaManna that sent a video the other day of this kid's birthday party and he's in the PAL program and all of them were singing to him and telling him happy birthday and like it just gives him this sense of family 100%.
Speaker 3:It's a family. And then we have, when I first started and there's a quick little story and I'll talk about that young man you just mentioned the first kid we sponsored was for the Storms football team. We had Captain Ural who used to work for us. He volunteered a lot of his time for the Storms field as a coach and he passed away and in his memory we started a scholarship in his name for the Storms football program. So we sponsor a kid every season.
Speaker 3:In that Our very first kid we sponsored, I was all excited to say, okay, we got him going. I said what do you need? Do you need some gear? What can we get for you? And he looked at me. He said Officer Pombert, just come to the game, just come watch me play. And I drove home that night and I said to myself you know, I feel this responsibility that for this to work, I know what I need to do now. And I got to be involved in these kids' lives and help them out from every aspect that we can. And it really hit home that you know we had a kid that could ask for anything. Right, most kids are going to say can I get shoes, football, he just wanted someone to come watch him play because of his situation and we started doing that and I'm involved in his life, every aspect of it, and I've had him for six years now and it's incredible growth that he's shown and I'm real close to the family and to this date, now we have 29 kids in our program.
Speaker 2:Amazing. It's really grown very well. Wow, that's so awesome. I think it's just a thing to have for these kids someone to show up for them and let them know that they care. And it's not always just at risk, sometimes it's just, you know, you need a little extra help. Sports are expensive Very expensive yeah, super expensive.
Speaker 3:So kind of the process we go through is that I have an application online at ccpdpalcom. You would fill it out and the very last part of it is why do you want to be in a PAL program? The big thing that we have is accountability. So how you would do it is you would be either living in Cape Coral or go to a Cape Coral school. You'll get referred to by your school resource officer or an administrator at that school. We'll give you the application and then I set up a home visit.
Speaker 3:I'll come, I'll talk to the family and the child about the program, what my expectations are, but, more importantly, what's the child's expectations of me and our program, because that's what you're going to get the most out of it. My biggest thing is we'll provide all the sports, all the fees, we'll mentor you, we'll be involved in your life, but we want you to make sure you give back. So when you're all said and done with the program and you don't need us anymore, I want you to come back and volunteer your time and help us out, and that's what I call full circle of success. So if we're able to do that, then we know we've been successful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you have kids that are doing that currently?
Speaker 3:We do. Actually, we just had a charity event we finished over at Belk. I had a couple of our kids and parents come help us with that. And the beauty of all this is that we have parents of the kids we sponsor actually volunteering their time in the sport and the leagues that their kids are involved with, so they're spending time with them on top of the sports that they do. And when I started this program full time this past summer, I had two main goals was to grow the amount of females and young ladies in our program, which we now have over 10, which is incredible.
Speaker 3:I have two daughters that play sports and I know the importance of sports. I really wanted to get our females and young ladies involved. They're involved in our gymnastics, cheerleading, basketball, and then I have other kids that are involved in football and we just started a boxing program, which I know I'm going to come back at a later time to talk a little bit more about.
Speaker 3:Let's get a little tease about it is that the young man called Coach Johnny. He was a PAL kid and now he runs the PAL boxing program and is giving back. So when we talk about that later on, it's a great thing he's doing for the program.
Speaker 1:That's just incredible and it really shows the impact, because this is someone who went through the program himself and now wants to give back so that other kids can have what he had. You're our department's first PAL officer right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, the program started back in 1994. Chief Arnold Gibbs at the time started the program and it was at the time we had sworn officers that would go and mentor the kids. Fast forward through the 2000s, a little bit of an economic downturn and the program went away for a little bit. A retired officer, mike Anderson, who I met when I was working at Parks and Recreation at the youth center. He was our PAL officer back in the 2000s. He had a boxing, wrestling, martial arts programs. He gave so much of his time to the kids and to the community. He's still a very good friend of mine and a very good consultant of the program.
Speaker 3:I was willing to help out at any time, and still does. The program kind of had a little stall after that with the economic downturn. 2021, as an SRO, I had a conversation with the chief seismologist who came to me and we talked about rebuilding this program and I was all on board and our visions were exactly the same and for a couple of years now, I think we're on the right path and we're creating an incredible thing for the kids in this community that we will keep going for years to come. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:And you obviously have to be a pretty special person to be that officer, and it seems like you fit the role perfectly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I have a lot of help. I'm always asking help from our school resource officers, volunteers and people in the community. I look at it this way I'm the quarterback right. I'm just putting people in place and making sure we have the right things in place and we're going to find the best results in what we can for a group as a whole. So as long as I'm able to do that and mentor and coach, I think it'll be success for many years to come.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, that's awesome. So you guys just had one event and you have a few coming up.
Speaker 3:Yesterday was incredible. We partnered with Aloha Marine and we had an event at Fathoms where we had to fill the boat, drive it that we collected a lot of toys and one thing in our PAL program I'm teaching our kids is to give back right. We're really blessed in the sports and the stuff that we do that it's important to give back as well. So our kids this week will be donating those toys to the Gala San Jose Children's Hospital to help those kids out for this holiday season. So kids helping kids seeing that is an important part of the program. So what a wonderful thing and something we're looking forward to doing.
Speaker 3:This weekend Doesn't get better than that. A couple other things we have. Coming up is, on January 11th we have a call to comedy night. So we have a comedian coming into Lake Kennedy Center and we have Mission Barbecue and it's going to be a fundraiser $50 a person. We will have silent auction items to bid on as well. And another thing with our kids is that our PAL kids are going to be there and they're going to help clear tables and talk to the people about the event. So when you're there and you're enjoying your meal and you're donating and helping a program out, you can see where your money's going. We are a 501c tax deductible organization and all your dollars are helping the kids and growing in the events that we do.
Speaker 1:That's so awesome. It's cool that they'll be there too, because people can then see you know exactly where their money's going, and talk to the kids.
Speaker 3:And it works both ways because it teaches the kids how to speak to people right. When I go in I do a home visit the first thing I talk about is looking somebody in the eye and shaking their hand and introducing yourself, because that's outside your comfort zone for most people and it still is as adults. But when we talk about full mentorship, the money and sponsoring the kids are important but you have to give your time and you have to be involved and we want to develop the kid as a whole Because if we're able to do that, then that child is going to be a productive member of Cape Coral as they get older. We also developed a sport mentorship program. I want to talk about this for a second.
Speaker 3:So this January through April, over at Lake Kennedy Center, I partnered with Cape Coral Parks and Recreation and developed a what I call a sport mentorship program. So on Tuesdays and Thursday nights we're going to have a different sport per month. So January we're going to start with basketball. So it's not just the sport. We're going to bring in what we call our DREs, the department, our drug recognition experts. They're going to come in and talk about the dangers of uses of drugs with the kids.
Speaker 3:I'm going to have a nutritionist come in talk about proper dieting.
Speaker 3:We're going to have a local coach and Coach Ebert from the Cape Coral basketball team will come in and talk to the kids about what are coaches looking for as you're growing up to make these teams, as you become a basketball player in high school, and then we're going to have members of Cape Coral Parks and Rec talk to them about arts and crafts, and then myself and other officers will teach the actual specifics of the sport. So it's two to two and a half hours for three weeks, six classes that we're going to teach the whole nine yards about a kid growing up and being mentored in sports and the important things in our lives. So that'll be on the Cape Coral Parks and Recreation website. That's awesome, so you can check that out. And for the kids in our PAL program, they'll be part of it as well too, because, like I said, just seeing them play their sports is important, but being involved in every aspect of their lives and helping them grow as individuals that's how you measure success in our program.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just talking about fitness and nutrition and stuff like that. I don't know that I got a lot of that growing up necessarily. I think I had to figure a lot of that out for myself as an adult.
Speaker 3:In addition to that I said those were on Tuesdays and Thursdays we're also starting the same location on Wednesday nights, an archery program. So myself and a couple of officers just recently got certified to teach USA level archery and we're going to start an archery program with the kids.
Speaker 3:Can I sign up, absolutely, absolutely, and it'll be over there at Lake Kennedy on Wednesday nights for four months. So going ahead for the program, I can't be happier to see the success and how we're growing this program. It's going where I hoped it would be and then we have leaps and balances to still get to. But if there's a sports organization in Cape Coral, we're either sponsoring a kid in it or we're going to sponsor a kid in it. Growing the partnerships with everybody is important to us.
Speaker 3:February 8th we're having a charity softball event where we're going to raise money to help get the fields at Koza Saladino Park to upgrade the T-ball fields. So we'll have a charity softball event. You can go to our website right now and sign up a team for that. We'll have competitive teams, rec teams. It's going to be a fun event. And then later in March we have Apex Promotions and a Cape Coral Run Club. We're going to do a 5K race over at Rotary Park in the trails of that and that'll be another fundraiser as well and getting the name of the program out there. But also partnering with the great people of the community is something I wanted to do and I couldn't be happier how everything's coming together for us.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. You guys are doing such a good job. You, especially are doing awesome and I was just thinking about it because you mentioned that there's these programs happening Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoons, and then Wednesday afternoon evening as well. So that's three nights of your week that you're dedicating to this, outside of the typical work hours. You're busy, so this really must mean a lot to you.
Speaker 3:Right, it means a tremendous amount to me because I can't teach the kids to do something if I don't do it myself. Give an example to talk about. We just signed a new kid up in our program and he's been struggling a little bit and I went back to the house and we talked a little bit about what needs to be done, about getting our grades up and being a productive member in school. To be a productive member on the field, you have to remember if you're part of a sports team, right, and I'll use this example when I coach basketball. I recently just coached the Oasis middle school and high school boys teams and every day of practice we would meet at the center court. Okay, because what did we talk about?
Speaker 3:The game, the practice, we talked about the good deed of the day. I would assign one player for the next day in school to do one good deed Whether you picked up a pencil that fell on the floor, did you pay for lunch for somebody who didn't have it, and then, before practice started, you would have to tell that good deed in front of everybody, right Outside your comfort zone, talk about it and then, if you didn't do it well, everybody else in the team had to run sprints while you watched, so they watched for your error, and what that taught was hey listen, I don't want to let my teammates down. I don't like how I feel when I let people down, and we would do that every day. And I guess one person forgot to do the deed and never forgot again so anyhow, you're teaching those sort of skills.
Speaker 3:Like I said, coaching all my life this falls PAL.
Speaker 3:For me is mentorship and coaching, right. I'm just putting people in the right places for success. You have 29 kids in a program in all different organizations that live all over the place, different personalities, right? So we are going to have a pizza party for them the day after Christmas. They're all going to come to Lake Kennedy and we're going to have a pizza party for them the day after Christmas. They're all going to come to Lake Kennedy and we're going to get a pizza, families and everything, and they get to meet each other and just hang out, no agenda, just talk to each other, become friends, because a lot of them don't even know each other because they're in different schools. But I can't stress enough that the way it all works, just with the school resource officers being involved and then the school administrators, it really is a full circle to be successful in the program. And 29, 30 kids, we want to grow it. But to do that, you know we got to keep raising our money and hopefully the community helps with that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Got to get out to those fundraisers. So if you're listening, please come, please donate.
Speaker 3:For right now. We just had it set up as a regular donation on our website, but we are going to be creating sports, specific amount, specific tier levels and things like that. In the next few months when we have a boxing event, we will have the boxers come out and you'll be able to. If that's your thing, you want to just donate to boxing, we can set that up and donate and sponsor a boxer for the upcoming season. You know things are costly and we understand that, but the work that the PAL program puts in the volunteers can't put a price tag on it To see a kid become successful. I love telling stories. I got one more for you here.
Speaker 1:Oh, we love stories.
Speaker 3:We just added a young man to our boxing program and it's only been a couple of weeks having a little bit of trouble with discipline in school. He's a younger kid. Well, fast forward in two weeks. He's doing incredible in boxing. But not just doing incredible, but we have mom and dad and the teacher from the school come watch him at boxing. The principal gave me a call to tell me how much he's changed in school. So I just went over myself in the SRO ate lunch with him one day and just for hey, hey, listen, you're doing such a great job, you got to be praised for it. Keep it going. And that last sheet on the application where the kids tell me what they want to get out of the program I always go back to accountability, because I use this analogy is that you know you can lie to me, you can lie to your teacher, but when you get up in the morning you need to look in the mirror because you can't lie to the person in the mirror, right?
Speaker 3:If you use that, and you use that every day, you understand. Be truthful to yourself. We're going to put you in a place to be successful, but you got to start your engine in the morning Meaning. Get up with the right attitude. Don't lie to anybody. Don't lie to yourself. Come with a positive up and we'll be there when you slip up and we're going to correct you.
Speaker 3:There's very simple things that are required in this program Good behavior, keep your grades up and be a productive member of society. If you do all three things, we're going to put you in the right direction. It's not asking for much, but it's asking you to be a good person and surrounding yourself with good people. And you got to understand kids, just in general right, are very focused in the moment. So we're helping with their goals and seeing the future and what they want to do and get them to that point. So it's a great thing. I wish I could help everyone. Obviously we can't, but 30 kids is a great start in a few months and hopefully we double that in a year.
Speaker 1:That'd be amazing. You're incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really awesome. Is there anything else that you would like to share?
Speaker 3:Just understand that the program means so much to the department, but not just to myself, but the donation part of it, if you're able to go on and donate, that's how we grow the program. I'll be honest with you. With that, that's a first good start, and then the comedy night come out to that one, because that's important to us. It's one of our Kickstarter and fundraisers. And then if you just see a kid wearing their PAL shirt or out in a field or out in the program, or if you see myself or other Cape Coral police officers, just say hi, I mean, we're regular people too. We like talking with the public.
Speaker 3:A big part of our jobs is connecting with people and kids. I have the fun part of police work right. I get to see kids are happy and smiling and and I did want to give a shout out to my Oasis family I haven't seen them in a while, but I miss those kids over there, and this is what kickstarted this job for me is is my connection with them on that campus Great staff, great kids, great parents, and when you have that formula, it makes my job easy. And the ones that need a little bit extra help were there for you too, but just be positive and say hi, and that's all I can ask for.
Speaker 1:That comedy event. I mean, who doesn't love a comedian mission barbecue and you get to hang out with the kids and meet them. It sounds great.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, should be a fun time. Yeah, I need some brisket. Thank you so much for coming on. You are just amazing. All the work you're doing is incredible and I bet you never thought when you decided to be a cop one day that this is where you'd land.
Speaker 3:No, actually it wasn't at all, and I funny stories that I never really wanted to be a police officer and just working in parks and recreation and having seen what retired officer Mike Anderson did every day for those kids in the Pell program and just talking with him, that's why I'm sitting in this chair. I mean I give him a lot of credit for this, because I saw what he was doing, I saw the changes and the positive stuff he was doing in these kids' lives. With my background and my sports background, I would hope that one day I would be sitting in this chair talking about it. And 13 years into my career, here I am and I think I'm in the right place and I think that we're going to do great things for this program Not just myself, but just happy to be a contributor, as I call it, and just the people around me really making this a success.
Speaker 1:Awesome and for anyone interested in donating or maybe you want to sign up a kid fill out one of the applications. That's ccpdpalcom P-A-L. Thank you again for joining us today. We loved having you on.
