Noel – Martin County PAL
Don’t miss this Friday’s Jeep Talk Show interview with Noel from the Martin County Police Athletic League. Discover how they’re helping kids in the community with the power of a Jeep. Learn about their initiatives and how off-roading is making a difference in young lives. Tune in to our weekly interview episodes every Friday for inspiring stories from the Jeep community.
All right, boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep Talk Show interview. And today we’re gonna be talking with,
was it Noel? It was Noel, wasn’t it?
Because I wanna say Noel. I don’t know. I think it’s because of the Christmas thing. I don’t want to, I wanna say Noel. The Christmas song and stuff. Yeah.
Anyway, Noel, visionary leader, the executive director of Martin County PAL, a transformative organization dedicated to the empowerment of young lives through mentorship and athletics. Leaving behind a thriving career in landscape. Oh yeah, you can spend a bunch of money on landscaping. And it makes such a big deal to the house. It makes it look so much nicer.
Noel recognized he needed to structure, hang on a second.
Noel recognized the need for structured mentorship and an athletic program in their community. His journey marked by profound commitment to service and purpose. Noel, thanks a lot for being here. And I had you pronounce your name before we started. And I still screwed it up. But that’s kind of the charm of our show, especially the interviews.
Well, Tony, I really appreciate you having me here. And you know what, I’m used to the name thing. Oh, God, yeah. 50 years in the making and I still get it every day. So I just wanna mention the name of your organization really quick. Martin County PAL, like PayPal, but the PAL.org, mortincountypal.org. I mentioned that at the front of the interviews. So people can go and check out the website and see what’s going on there. And I think I found when I was going to it that you gotta put a www in front of it for it to work. So if you guys try going to mortincountypal.org and it doesn’t come up, put the www in the front of it, the old way of getting around the internet. All right, Noel, so now there’s a Jeep component to your organization, correct? There is, there is, yeah. We have, I’ve had a Jeep now for six years.
Mojito Green, JL, Ford Door. And I slapped the PAL logo on there and everything else. And it’s definitely well known in the community. And I’m always getting messages and texts. Oh, I just saw the PAL Jeep, PAL Jeep, PAL Jeep. So we are definitely embedded in the community with that PAL Jeep. You love hearing that too, being seen, especially when you’re trying to make people aware of things. It’s nice to get feedback. And I was just mentioning this the other day to a guest in an interview. It’s so important whenever you’re part of an organization and you get people to not only, you know people are seeing it, but for them to take their time to mention it or say, oh, I saw that, it just really feels good. Cause it’s effort and it is an expense as well. Yeah, I mean, everybody always tells me that it’s good and bad cause I can’t hide.
And I’m seen all the time, right? Oh, you’d be dead meat if somebody saw you at McDonald’s. Why are you even there? Listen, I’ve had it. Oh my God. I had it the other day cause my son started driving and he was using the Jeep all day. And my phone’s blowing up. What are you doing at McDonald’s? What are you doing at McDonald’s? I’m like, it’s not me, it’s not me, it’s my son. Oh yeah. Yeah. So when your mission statement is to develop healthy, productive leaders of the future and the PAL Jeep sitting in the drive-through at McDonald’s. Oh, it’s my kid. You say it’s my kid, then everybody understands because they don’t do exactly what you’re telling them to do. So what kind of Jeep is it?
It’s a JL, soft top JL, Mojito green. It’s lifted. I’ve got the lights on for the night. I mean, you can’t miss this thing. You can’t miss it. So what kind of lift?
It’s a rough country, two and a half inch lift.
And I’ve got the Oracle lights underneath. Oh nice. Yeah, yeah. And then my team, I just turned 50 last this year in the beginning of this year. My team bought me one of those giant whip LED antennas. And that thing is just, that thing’s the brightest thing on the Jeep. So I’ve got that flashing with a green scrub. And yeah, this thing’s obnoxious when it’s at night. So how are you with the police force there in the town? Because I think that they would be a little questioning of distracted driving. Yeah, I don’t, I try not to draw attention to myself when I’m driving around. We’ve got a great partnership with the Sheriff’s department here. And our Sheriff, William Snyder actually was critical to the start of our program back in 2017. Yeah, so in order to start a PAL program, you have to be either a law enforcement agency or partner with one. So I was real fortunate enough that at that time, the Sheriff, he used to box back in the day down in Miami. Oh my God, you’re gonna say you had to have a death match with him to be able to get approved for this. This is like Rocky. Yeah, I mean, this story,
this story of how this PAL started is just absolutely incredible.
When I wanted to start this program,
I had a boxing fitness, a kicks boxing fitness gym. And I was watching the Olympics and I saw this kid in the Olympics. They did a whole backstory. Oh, the kid was a pain and the trouble in the streets. And one of the PAL coaches pulled him in and says, look, if you’re gonna fight, I’m gonna do something productive with you and got him involved and hooked on boxing. And there was this kid, 17 years old, competing for a medal in the Olympics.
And I turned to my wife and I said, hey, how cool would it be to take one of our kids and put them in the Olympics? And she’s like, well, do it. I’m like, I don’t know how to do it. I was like, I’m a landscaper. I’m doing this for extra money at night. So I did some research and I found out, yeah, you can do the PAL, you have to be partnered with an organization. I go, that’s funny because the Sheriff is actually working out at my gym at night doing boxing. Oh. I’m like, hey, Sheriff, I’m like, can we do this? He’s like, yeah, he’s like, I’ll help you any way I can. So we signed an agreement that, you know, a partnership with them. And there’s no financial obligations from him. They were on our own to figure that part out. But I mean, if it wasn’t for him, this would have never started. It would never be where I am today.
So I didn’t ask you where are you guys located? And I’m assuming that you handled just for the general area with the kids and the athletic programs and stuff. That’s correct. We’re located in Martin County, Florida. We’re right in Palm City. And we service all of Martin County and we actually go all the way out west to Indian Town, which is a rural town here in Martin County as well.
We cover all those areas. We’re serving about 600 kids a year right now and growing. Every year we’re growing at a tremendous clip. And it’s just been a blessing. This is just, you know, this was just my calling. And, you know, I left my 38 years in the landscape industry for this. And this is just what I was put on the earth to do. And that’s what I’m doing. So switching gears here a bit, because I’m just curious, what is the thing about landscaping that was the biggest gotcha, that you just didn’t think it would be a thing? I’m sure people are just really pains in the asses and they ask for unrealistic things that you can’t do or you can, but it would be really expensive to do. But was there a common gotcha about landscaping that you learned about over those 30 years?
You know, I was landscaping when I was in eighth grade. I mean, my dad was like, I was born an entrepreneur and a hustler. That’s great. My dad’s like, you know, if you want to go get those shoes, you got to go find money. And so, well, can I use them or is it? Yeah, and I would literally take the push mower, a little tank of gas and like those hand shears, like the old hand shears, that’s how I use the edge of sidewalks and my hands and knees. Wow. And I would just go hustle, like, yeah, I’ll cut your lawn for 20 bucks. And one thing led to another. And I was in college, I did college for about two years and brick and mortar was not my thing. Like I was always looking out the window, I’m like, hey, I want to go do, and I just left college, dropped out of college and started my own company.
Actually acquired and purchased the company of the guy that I used to work for during the summers. Wow, nice. And I picked up a partner and we just blew this thing up and I actually went to school for landscape design and just blew it. And I was just so passionate about transforming people’s yards and everything. And then this was up in Pennsylvania. So I quickly got sick of the winters up there. Oh, of course. And my uncle had had a house down here. What do you do? How do you get a paycheck whenever it’s wintertime and there’s snowed? Are you into snow shaping? Come in and put a snowman up in the front yard for people? I mean, there’s not much to do, is there? When we first started the business, my partner and I would have to get part-time jobs in the summer to pay the bills, right? But we got to the point where we were successful enough that we would put money away to hold us through the winter and we would plow snow and everything. But in Pennsylvania where we lived, it wasn’t the moneymaker. That was just icing on the cake, so to speak.
So in 2000, I really just got sick of the weather up there. I was getting seasonal depression and everything, especially after coming to Florida in the wintertime. I’m like, sheesh. And it just came to a point. I was young, I was single. I was like, you know what? I’m out. I’m gonna take this leap and just do it. And then I did it. Moved down here, went to school here, learned about landscape here in the schools because it’s a different, we’re going from seasonal to tropical. So I versed myself in here, worked with a landscape company here, switched to another one. And I worked with some of the top 10% people in the entire world. We were doing houses on Jupiter Island, Palm Beach Island, millions and millions of dollars on landscape. And it was just amazing. Meat grain people transformed dirt into beautiful oases for people. It was so satisfying. Yeah, it’s so funny. You were talking about the mower and stuff and I actually mowed grass whenever I was probably 13, 14 years old and bought a 10 speed bicycle, a Swin, 10 speed bicycle. That was like 110 bucks. And I was always, I got into the yard, I got into the yard, I’m gonna be able to get that bike, in another six months, whatever it was. And yeah, so I don’t know, but could I call myself a landscaper because I was mowing grass? I mean, I guess it’s landscaping, right? Yeah, it really is. I mean, I got to the point where I built this makeshift trailer and attached to my bike with a rope. And I was just, you know what I mean? You just had to do it. Even when I started my own landscape company, I had a 78 Chevy Impala two door. And I put a trailer hitch on, I put a trailer and put mowers in there. I was driving around with a car and a trailer. Like that’s how I started. Like, you know. The cool thing is, is that because you did this, you learned that all you have to do is just put forth the effort, put forth the time, make the contacts, get the customers, and you can take care of yourself. And that is a wonderful thing to do. I mean, I’ve worked for multiple companies over the years, and it’s always been a disappointment because corporations don’t give a shit about you. You’re a cog in the wheel. I mean, and we all know that going in, but the relationships that you, and the time that you put into it, you think it’s gonna be worth something. And it’s really not in the big scheme of things. So being able to have, I always look at it like, you can have one customer, which is the corporation, or you can have a lot of customers, which are the people that you’re really working for. And if you lose one, it’s sad, but you still got all these others. Yeah, and it’s funny you say that because that’s a huge component of what’s missing in today’s world with these kids, is that hustle and drive.
These kids, they need to learn that hustle. Like, we’re not here to give them stuff. Like, that’s not the way it works. Right.
Handouts don’t exist. I mean, they’re great when they’re there, but when they disappear, what are you left with? Right. Like, so we’ve gotta teach these kids the hustle and the passion and the drive. We really work hard here with our kids to find that dream and that goal,
because once we know the dream and the goal,
we have our support system that helps push and thrive and feed the dream and the goal for these kids. Like, we expose them. Like, we have, of course, we have sports programs and activities here, yeah, big deal. What really at our core makes the difference is the values and the leadership lessons that we teach these kids, because that’s what they need to succeed in life. Because you can have a kid that’s a straight A student, unbelievable in coding AI, but he can’t work with anybody. Oh, yeah. He can’t compete with people. What good is he can do? That’s kind of general IT people anyway.
(Laughs) In general, you know. The better you are at IT, the worse you are with people. Yeah, but you have to be able to communicate with people. You have to be able to socialize with people. You have to be able to interact with people, and you have to be able to appreciate, respect, and honor people.
I mean, at its core, and that’s really what we do here. We develop these kids. Our mission statement is to develop healthy, productive leaders of the future.
The healthy is mental and physical. Like, we’re very, very adamant about being healthy here, physical. We try to always give the kids healthy snacks. You’ll never see soda in here. We’re weaning out chips as we speak. We’re just trying to find healthy options for these kids. And then the mental portion of this is giving them those leadership values, teaching them empathy, respect to adults and to peers. I mean, that’s what we need more of in this world, is these kids that understand that things aren’t for free. It’s up to them to provide for themselves, and it’s up to them to add value to other people. And then once these kids start understanding how important it is to add value to other people’s, the rippling effect is amazing. You see the change within themselves, within their peers, in their families, and all that translates right into the community. And then that’s how we start changing and transforming these communities, one kid at a time. And that’s what we do here at our core. So I would assume you use athletics to help understand there’s a manager, there’s somebody that guides and directs the team, the team has to rely on each other if you wanna be in a winning situation, even if you don’t keep score, it’s nice to know that you’re doing the job that you’re intended to do. So a lot of these things, I believe, translate into what you’re just talking about, life and working with people, communicating the criticality of communication, because you can really screw up stuff in a baseball game if you’re not communicating with the rest of your team.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, everything at its core is important to what you do. And we have very different unique sports here, like we’re not the baseball, soccer, or baseball basketball kind of organization, we have boxing at our core. Oh, nice. That’s good because there’s a lot of aggression in both, definitely in males, but even females these days, and this gives a way to let lose some of that aggression and helps you deal with things in your life if you let loose the aggression. Right, and these kids are all bottled up all day long at school, right? They’re constantly be told, no, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, they’re stressed, something at home is twerking them, and they can’t get this aggression out, and they come over here and beat the hell out of a bag. And you see the pressure just released from these kids, and all of a sudden, this kid’s talking like crazy and having a good time, and it’s therapy at its core. That’s gonna feel so good to see that. Even us, my employees are staffed, I’ll be here during the day, and all of a sudden, the bag is ripping out there, I’m like, uh-oh, somebody’s having a bad day. Well, I guess the meeting didn’t go as well as I thought.
Yeah, hopefully I wasn’t the cause of that problem.
But yeah, it’s important, and then we have golf, we have a great golf program that’s really starting to blow up, and you know, golf, you know as well as I do, golf is like owning a Jeep, I mean, you talk about empty banking.
And these kids, they can’t afford a set of clubs, it’s like 200 bucks to go play golf, 40, 50 bucks, I mean, that’s so expensive, so we’re putting these kids on the golf course, and it costs them nothing. And this is a great skill to learn if they go to college as an opportunity for that, but not only that, you can play golf until you’re dead.
I mean, I get beat by old guys on the golf– That’s true, yeah, that’s very true.
And you know, you get into the corporate world or whatever it may be, and you wanna have a meeting with somebody, hey, you wanna go play golf? Yeah, sure, I’ve got four hours of their undivided attention one on one. You’re gonna do something in those four hours. Do you ever not play as good as you can just so you have something for them to talk to you about? Well, with my skill level, you don’t have to worry about that. Well, then I would use that as the excuse. Yeah, they’re usually talking about how bad my game is, so that carries the conversation on just fine. You need to help me with your help and support, I can buy lessons. Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, we have boxing, we have golf, we have a drumline program that the kids really love, and our drumline kids perform at one of our big events every single year, so they get to look forward to doing that. And we have soccer, we have a couple of leadership programs, and we’re a really big diversion program for the court system. So once the kids get in trouble with the courts, they’re sanctioned to come to our leadership program for 16 weeks. So that’s where they get those 16 value lessons. That has to be very challenging, because I’m sure there’s some very large chips on shoulders. There really is, and you know, with the vaping and THC right now going around in the schools, like, you know, I would say 80 to 90% of the kids we get are vaping with THC, so they’re, you know, these kids are high all day long. Yeah, they’re mentally not straight, I guess you could say. It’s just hard to learn that like that too, which kind of begs the question, why are they allowed to do that in school? I mean, I know that they’re not allowed, but you know what I mean. You could crack down on those type of things, but then again, lawsuits and people getting upset and parents going, not my kids, so. It’s a challenge. It really is a challenge, and you know, that program, we’ve been running that diversion program for five years now, and we have a zero recidivism rate, so I’m not sure if you’re familiar with it.
So that means that none of those kids have been fracked in again.
Well, you just tell them you know where they live, and they’re, no, I’m just saying. It’s either, it’s either also the judge, you like, you make your choice, like come here. You know, they work closely with mentors, so we have one mentor for every seven kids, so the kids get to develop a relationship with a mentor that actually cares about them, that wants to help them, and it’s really great, like we have so many mentors that’ll just come to me, it’s like, oh, this kid came in, he’s like all gangster and everything, and like, you know, after a few weeks, you see him start to open up and talk, and like, you know, the persona, the fake persona goes away, and the real person comes back out again, and it’s just so great to see that transformation happen in these kids, because again, they’re going to their peers as a different person now, maybe they’re not hanging out with those peers anymore, and have made a better choice to move to a different group of kids,
but at our core, that’s really what matters, I mean, you know as well as I do, the kids nowadays, we need to pour in them as much as I can, they need so much help. Right, and the economy, and it’s been this way off and on for a while, it doesn’t lend itself to a parent being at home, you know, with them, and because this is really, what you’re doing is what the parents should be doing, and they’re either ill-equipped to do that, or they’re just too damn busy,
and they have to hope for the best. This is the new parent. Yes.
That’s the new parent. And I was going to ask you about that, so especially on the judge related, the judge mandated ones, do you have any kind of rules and regulations about being on social media, or maybe playing video games, because I can see how, especially like Grand Theft Auto, I got that game and I was playing it, and I just felt bad, I had to stop playing it, because I don’t like playing games that I’m doing harm to other people. It’s just the game I know, but it just didn’t appeal to me. Yeah, it’s such a hard part to, first of all, PAL is a no electronic zone. We don’t let the kids, no fight. If I see the phone, it’s gone. They’re scratching their neck and licking themselves, because they don’t know what to do. Right, if we see the phone, it’s gone, but at the same time, our programs are so structured and so disciplined and so in their faces, they really don’t have time to do anything else, but that program. We keep them busy all the time, and all we can do is educate them. The worst that’s gonna happen to a PAL kid when they leave here is they leave with a bunch of tools that are gonna make them survive and be successful. That’s the worst thing. Maybe they’re not listening now, but two years from now, when that aha moment happens, all this stuff that we’ve taught them resonates all of a sudden.
Wow, like, oh, I remember when coach told me this or this coach told me that.
That’s really what we’re trying to do here is have these kids ready. We’ve placed a lot of kids into jobs already that were PAL kids that came in here for selling drugs, doing drugs.
So it’s really incredible to watch these kids just have that full transformation happen. The other thing, the other aha moment I had recently is we’re developing healthy production as leaders of the future, but what we’re doing is we’re handing you a camera-ready person to go to work.
They’re camera-ready.
They might not have the skills for the job,
but as a human being, you want them on your team.
Because they’re gonna strive. I think a person that has their mind open can learn anything, and as long as you’re a teacher or a decent person, you can train somebody really to do anything. At least that’s what I’ve found.
So let me ask you about this. So you mentioned about the judge, and I say ordered, maybe it is a choice. They can do this program or do something that’s not as pleasant. But how do people get involved in this? I would imagine that you could have quite a waiting list if it’s not a court ordered.
So we have a couple of feeder systems here for POW. So the court order thing, so every time a youth gets a civil citation, the middle school kids are sanctioned to come to POW, depending on what they do. So they have to come to our programs. They do the diversion programs, or they choose not to, and they gotta go back to the courts and deal with them.
So there’s that portion. But since, like I talked about our unique sports, we have so many unique sports that aren’t offered here in the county. We get a draw of kids that just wanna come here for that reason. Yeah.
There’s probably not a places to go boxing. Yeah, so that’s kinda cool by itself. And our head boxing coach is a former two time heavyweight champion in the world. He beat him in the Holyfield, John Ruiz. So that’s got some merit too, right? Sure. Hey, we’ve got a legit boxing system here, but the other piece of it too is I’m really proud and adamant about the fact that we have positive male role models here, which are so needed today. There’s so many single family homes that need that positive male, and we all know that having a positive male role model is gonna keep you out of trouble. Oh yeah. It helps both the boys and it helps the girls. They need that positive strong figure to look up to and understand that that person’s there to help them guide them through life.
Yeah, I told all my children multiple times whenever they were complaining about rules and stuff, I said, look, you can learn from mom and I, or you can learn from life. And I guarantee you life is gonna be a lot harder on you than anything that we’re doing to you. Yeah, absolutely. And as parents, it’s our job to prepare them for life. Yes.
And the single family, and not even, not necessarily just a single family, but like you said, with the economy, the way it is in inflation, we have families that are working three or four jobs. Mom and dad are working three or four jobs, so the kids are wherever. Oh, and the kids understand it, but they don’t like it, and they’re left to their own devices, and depending on their age and the people they hang around, yeah, it’s a nightmare. And I’m assuming this is open for both boys and girls. Yes, yeah, we have about 37% population of females and the rest are boys.
We have a heavy Hispanic population here at our organization now, due to going out to the rural areas. And so yeah, we cater to them all. We’re here to support them and everything, and we just started developing programs from parents too,
because as you know, you can help a kid all they want, but they go home to a toxic environment every single day. That’s gonna be some tough conversations. It is hard. We’re taking baby steps. We partnered with John Roseman last year, who’s a world-renowned parenting expert and psychologist, and we had him come to POW, and we did 12 hours of video series with him on parenting topics. Kids not listening, how do I do discipline, bullying,
electronic devices like we both talked about. So we put together a whole entire parenting session
for parents video series. So we’re dripping that out right now across our social media platforms as resources for parents for help. And it’s, we’ve got parents, my kid’s not listening. I don’t know what they’re doing, he’s out of control. Well, here’s a parenting series you can check out. It’s on our YouTube video. Some of the teasers are on our YouTube video now, channel now. So there’s a lot of resources that we’re, we’re also trying to help parents too.
Yeah, that’s really important. That kind of does the full circle thing because, and actually I was gonna ask you, do you find that any of,
could I call them students? Because they’re there to learn stuff. So do any of your students come back because they just find themselves going down the wrong path again, and they need a refresher? To me, it’s almost like an AA meeting, you know? You have to keep going.
Right.
Yeah, you know, it’s funny you said that, you know, when I was, when I started PAL, I was kind of doing both. I was working at the landscape company and doing PAL part-time.
And for the, we had one girl, when we first started our diversion program, the first class, we had one girl come in and she was scary. Like I was intimidated by her. So it was me, one of the captains at the time who was my vice president, he was there. And then we had a lieutenant from the jail. So those were our mentors, me and these two other guys. So she comes in and I’m like, what’s your name? And she told me her name, her name was Sandra. And she’s like, I’m like, well, here’s your workbook. And she says, I don’t need no F in workbook and threw it across the room. Sure. Threw it across the room. And I’m sitting there like, uh-oh. Well, she’s got to set the expectation. Yeah, and I looked at the two cops in the room and I’m like, I’m scared, what am I supposed to do? And I’m like, look at it. And they’re not saying anything. I’m like, you guys help me out. Like, what am I supposed to do here? And I’m like, okay. She’s like, where do I sign in? I’m like, right here. It’s just sat down in a huff. And I’m like, holy crap. I’m like, this is not what I signed up for. I’m saying, I’m thinking working with landscaping is going to be a lot more pleasant.
Because I know, I mean, I haven’t ever been in this situation but I feel I know that if a judge has ordered something, it’s, somebody ain’t going to be happy about it. Yeah. And you know, it was crazy though, Tony, because four months later, she’s stuck with me for 16 weeks, right? So two months later, I’m sitting there. She comes in early and sits next to me in the boxing ring. And she’s like, hey coach, how you doing? And I’m like, who the hell are you? Holy crap. Who the hell are you? Why are you talking to me? She’s got to be so gratifying. I was like, what the hell? And she’s like, you want to see what I was doing today? I’m like, yeah, sure. And she was coming up on her quince birthday. So she’s preparing for this big, huge quince party. So we started talking about that. And I’ve never seen, let me tell you, it was like, God just came to me and just dropped his bomb on me. And that very day, I knew that this was what I was supposed to do.
It was over. Landscaping was done for me. So I watched this girl completely transform and change her life. She went through the 16 weeks. She stayed on as a mentor. Nice. She came to me with a 3.2 GPA, graduated with a 4.3. She ended up being my first hire at Pal as a part-time employee. And she still works here to this day. Oh, that’s so cool. Do you ever give her a hard time about that first day? Oh, we always talk about it. I tell this story all the time. She’s like, oh, are you going to tell the story today? I’m like, of course I’m going to tell the story today. You made it to a podcast. You’re a great supplier, right? Well, that’s interesting. And I think that God, the universe, I personally think God puts things in our path that helps us make the right decision in our lives. And you were, it sounds like you were tasked with,
maybe not the worst, but somebody that was going to be really tough and it was scary for you. You charged at the situation and you were successful. And I’m sure now if somebody comes in, it’s like, oh, you’re not as bad as she was. Well, it’s funny because she’s the one in that program now. She’s like, I’ve been there, done that. You don’t scare me.
It’s all about learning. And I think that’s why we’re here, is to learn things that help each other. It’s so great. Yeah, we have a ton of mentors. Like we encourage, like all of our, we have three high school kids that have been on our boxing program for a while. So now they coach our boxing fitness program. They’re here as coaches and mentors and we pay them. And we pay the mentors to come coach. Like why not? They’re here, they’re working. They’re gonna pay you. Here’s a job. That’s a good point. How do you guys make money? How do you guys, is it donations? Is it drives and stuff? How does that work? Yeah, it’s the nonprofit beg, borrow and steal scenario. You know, it’s the way that, you know, I get up every day and have to hustle money. We have a bunch of events throughout the year. We’re down to about four. We have one big signature event called Bahama Mama.
And that’s our big premiere event. We always have it in May. And then we have a bunch of other program events that are stuck with there. So we have a Jeep Riddle run. We have– And that was the one that you had back in September, right? About the late latter part of September. Correct, on September, yep. And that’s a fun one. We bring the Jeepers out. You know, it’s very, very specific to them. We have a nutcracker party in November, which is, you know, you can purchase a blank nutcracker. I call them the naked nutcrackers. And you decorate it and you bring it to PAL and we auction them off and all the money goes to PAL. So that’s a fun little holiday party we have. And then we have a big CrossFit competition that we partner with a local CrossFit club here. And that brings in like three or 400 people. So that’s, you know, we’ve got some other ones that trickle in. We do have some grants that we work on. Our Drug and Opioid Awareness Program that’s funded by a grant. So yeah, there’s a lot of– Is that local or federal? That is federal. Yeah, yeah. So our PAL uses no local tax dollars whatsoever. Oh, okay. We’ll have any– Just donations and people that are trying to support you guys on what you do. Corporate, yeah, we have corporate partners and, you know, people that really care about what we’re doing and latch on and want to help support us grow. Now you may have already said this, but I may have missed it. How long have you guys been doing this? I started PAL in 2017.
So we’re in our eighth year. Very nice. So if you’re a parent and you have a troubled teen or you’re concerned that maybe you have a troubled, well, I guess it doesn’t have to be a teen. Teens are usually the worst. That was the other question I was gonna ask you. What kind of age range is this program for? We’re eight to 17. Okay. Yeah, so once you turn 18, you turn into a mentor coach. Oh, that’s good. Do you get a lot of those converts?
We do. We have about one, two, three, four,
probably like seven or eight mentors right now. I think that says a lot about the program. I mean, it’s not, okay, I got done with this crap and I’m out of here. It’s like, I’m done with this crap. Now I want to help out too. That’s wonderful. I mean, absolutely wonderful. You know, and it’s like, we have to teach these kids how to give back. Like, you know, and a lot of them just come to us like, hey, I want to help. I want to help. I’m good at this. Can I do this? And we have an amazing summer camp program. So we have a career exploration summer camp program where we, it’s just middle school only because middle school seems to be the sweet spot for us, but these kids come in and they’re exposed to probably 12 to 14 different career paths. So they do fire department. So everything a fireman would do, and it’s all hands on. Like they’re rolling hoses, putting gear on. Oh nice. That’s a cool profession, especially when your kid is like, I want to be a firefighter, astronaut, so on and so forth. So do that. We put them through construction, automotive and welding. We also put that. So damn it. We’re doing this stuff that schools used to do. Yeah, they’re all bringing them back too. I had drafting and wood shop. Those things were wonderful. I loved, I think we had a mechanics thing, a car mechanics thing, but I didn’t get a part of that. It wasn’t until I got my first car that I went into the mechanics program in my driveway.
Yeah. And they’re starting to bring all those back into schools. Oh God, I didn’t know. So my goal for the summer camp is like, let’s try to spark some interest in these kids that may not go to college. So at least in middle school, they can get into those CTE programs and the high schools all offer these programs now too. So I mean, they’re getting into, we do CSI, Bomb Squad. Oh nice. And wildlife comes in, K-9 comes in, they do 911 dispatch. We actually go to the 911 dispatch here at the sheriff’s office. They learn about the corrections facility at the jail, what it’s like to work over there, work with the corrections dogs. They need to understand how the correction facilities work.
Scared straight if you remember that program. Oh yeah. So we really expose these kids to so much stuff. And we go to the beach and they do fire rescue, ocean rescue with the lifeguards.
They reenact, like they pick a kid and then put them out in the water and they rescue him. So we really get these kids so much exposure. That’s right. You’re not in a classroom all the time. You’re out doing these things. They’re interacting in the environment. That’s gonna be very interesting, especially as a kid with a lot of energy. Yeah, and it’s just, it’s hands on. I mean, I feel like they’re gonna have more of a memory stored from it because they’re actually physically doing the stuff. They’re not bored out of their minds with a pencil and a piece of paper. Yeah, absolutely. I hate having, like I always have people that say they wanna come in and talk to the kids. I’m like, well, it’s gotta be hands on. So you gotta figure out how to make it. Cause if you’re up there talking to the kids, they’re gonna be twitting on their thumbs or kicking each other under the table. Like we’ve gotta get completely- I would be that way as a full season adult. I am that way too right now. It’s just boring. I mean, people can be engaging in stuff. I’m not saying they can’t be, but generally speaking, it’s gonna be more interesting getting out there. Kind of like we do with Jeeps. We can polish a Jeep, we can make modifications to it, but we wanna get it off road and do things with it. That excitement of this. So you were talking about the events. So you have one Jeep related event per year or is it? Okay.
But you personally have that Jeep, the Jeep driver round. Do you find any of the kids are curious about Jeeps and why do you have that Jeep and why is it lifted? Why do you do the big tires? Do you do anything? Do you answer any questions about Jeep related things or off-roading? It’s funny, you’ve got 600 kids. Every kid’s got their little niche, right? We have that fishing niche where the kids are just all fish. I’m fishing, I’m talking about fishing. We have the kids that are, we have a couple of kids that are into cars. There’s a few of those here and there. So some of them, like during the summer when we do the automotive portion, I let them change the tire on the Jeep. Look here, go change the tires. What size tires? I think you said, but is it 35, 37? 32’s on mine. Okay, well good. Then they can manage that. Yeah, we had to make it manageable.
Well, that’s the other thing because you’ve got a girl in there. Like I’m not changing the tire. I’m like, you better learn. Yeah, absolutely. Right now. Because if you’re on a date with a guy and you get a flat tire and you’re the one changing the tire, you need to get a new date. You cannot guarantee that a boy or a man is gonna be able to change the tire these days. I think if he’s driving a standard, you have a 50-50 chance. Well, I can guarantee you that all 150 of my pal kids can change the tire, guaranteed. Very good. Can’t leave camp unless you change the tire.
Let’s see, what else is it gonna, oh yeah. So the thing I was asking earlier about the parents or parents, if they see that there’s an issue with their child or field there is,
how would they, can they get them involved in your program and how would they go about that? Yeah, we get a lot of messages through Instagram, like direct messages through Facebook and Instagram with parents, like, hey, I’m having, or they’ll pick up the phone and call. I’ve got a kid, he’s out of control. I don’t know what I’m gonna do about it. Those are the things, and we jump on those responses right away. And we talked to him, like, what do you have in trouble with? And now that we’re dripping this parent series out on social media, we’re really starting to get a lot of parents like, hey, my kid’s not listening.
I’ve got a whole hour video on not listening. I’m like, here you go, like here it is.
And then we always, with those parents that call that are having trouble with their kids, our first motion is like, you gotta come to our leadership program. They have to come to our leadership program. They get linked up with a mentor, and then we start working on the kid. And then after a few months, it’s like, hey, the kids start finding out about the programs we have. Oh, I wanna go do boxing, or I’m gonna do golf, or I wanna do soccer. And it’s like, okay, yeah, fine, go ahead. I mean, we really are a one-stop shop for these kids. And we have a $45 a year membership for kids. That’s all it is, all year. And they can do all the programs, doesn’t matter.
That is really nice. It’s affordable, which is very important. That the kids that need help can get in there. And I think anybody can afford $45 a year. That’s just cheap.
Yeah, so we really make it an option where it’s not straining on the family financially, and the kids have resources. And we have an after-school program there for middle school kids. So literally, a middle school kid can come here right after school, stay here till six o’clock, and go right in. Oh, that’s nice. And go right into a– And for $45 a year, you’re not paying after-school babysitting? Oh, that’s a big thing right there. And the after-school program, they’re actually learning skills now. So we just brought in a new program where they’re actually can get Microsoft certified, learn coding, learn about AI, FBI, all that. But when they complete their courses, they get paid.
So they’re actually getting paid to learn. Oh, everybody, that kind of makes you pay attention, doesn’t it? Yeah, I mean, I’ve got middle schoolers that are making 40 bucks a month right now. Yeah, I mean, it’s like how much interest would you have going to a job that you didn’t get paid for?
So it makes sense, it’s a great idea. Exactly. So let me ask you, you said something about CSI and bomb disposal and stuff, do you get to blow anything up? Because I’m thinking blowing stuff up would be, no, you failed, you cut the wrong wire, it’s always the wrong wire. That would be cool. Now, the bomb squad brings in their automated robot, which is really– Oh, that’s nice.
And they literally just hand the remote to the kids and they’ll put a water bottle on the floor and say, all right, go pick up that water bottle and they’ll pick up their water bottle and bring it over. It’s really cool. I mean, it’s like I said, it’s hands-on, these kids are touching it, CSI comes in and they’ll have all the kids touch one of the cop cars and then they’ll pull the fingerprints off the car.
So they pull the duster out and they fingerprint the car. It’s really cool, they really do. I mean, it was– I think so many things, and I think it’s portrayed this way on TV and movies, so many things look difficult and complex. And then whenever you see the magic, it’s not difficult and complex. Some things are more difficult and it requires training, like being a surgeon, knowing all the things you need to know, but it’s not anything that anybody can’t do given the time and the desire to do it, I believe. I agree with you 100%. And like I said, these middle school kids, we gotta give them this exposure. I get the feeling that middle school is the sweet spot. Because the teenage years, things can get really bad. Yeah, and I’ve seen it with my own kids. I mean, I had great kids in preschool and as soon as they hit middle school, the wheels came off the tracks. I was like, what happened? And I hear it all the time, I see it all the time. You’ve got these great kids, boys and girls, and they get to middle school and it just, everything inside just gets completely erased and there are different kids all of a sudden that are making bad choices and the influences are bad. And that’s where we really have to hit them. We have to hit them so hard in middle school and just give them the resources. And we just gotta show that we care more about them. That’s really what it comes down to. Like every kid that walks into this building, they meet a coach that absolutely cares and loves them.
And kids don’t see that enough. Right.
I never saw it in like elementary, junior high, and high school. I remember how freeing it was going to college for the first time because you’re not treated like a child. And when you’re over a year, I was 18 my senior year because I was born in September. So it was so funny if I was late to school and I was always late to school, I could write my own notes because I was an adult. Nice, thanks for leading. I love it. I love it. The lady, Mrs. McCoy, she would always roll her eyes when I would come in late with my note. I love it. It’s so great. So, all right. Well, you know what? I can tell that we’ve only scratched the surface here. So you guys can go over to martincountypal.org to get more information.
And hopefully you guys knew about the Jeep Riddle run and we’re a part of that. And do you have it set for next year? Is it gonna be September or? Yeah, it’s always September.
So, especially if you’re in the area, tell me the area you’re in again. We’re in Martin County. Martin County, but that’s in Florida.
And the nearby city is? Stuart, Florida. Okay, so if you’re in that area or you just wanna travel, you can be a part of that Riddle run coming up next year. Sorry we missed you this year to promote that for the show. And I’ll just put a bug in your ear for next year when you have an event or any event you’d like to come on here and talk to the show about. Get in here about 30 days prior to the event. Of course it depends on our interview schedule, but the sweet spot for podcasts is about 30 days because that’s about the maximum exposure.
Cause you know, it’s on demand. So people listen to it all the time. But after 30 days, you’ve gotten about as much listings as you’re gonna get. There’s a few here and there. People will listen to this in the future. I’m hopeful that the first ship going to Mars, the Starship going to Mars, one of the things that people will be listening to or watching cause we’re doing this on YouTube now is the Jeep Talk Show. So I think that’d be really cool. Yeah, for sure. I think that’s amazing. So anyway, you know how the kids love the social media. Where can they find you on social media? Martincountypal.org is the website. What else you got? So Instagram is Martincountypal
and Facebook is Martin County Police Athletic League.
And we’re also on YouTube, Martincountypal. And people shouldn’t panic about the police at the athletic league. There’s no warrants being issued. There’s no– No, not at all. Did the police come in there and show you how to handcuff people, maybe use zip ties and stuff? Cause that’d be pretty fun too. That would be kind of cool, right? Bring that whole aspect into the realm. But yeah, absolutely. Well, you might as well go about it before it happens to them. And maybe it would deter them from being a part of the bad part of the situation.
Tony, when I started a soccer program, I had a guy come to me and said, “Hey, let’s start a soccer program in the Hispanic neighborhood.” I’m like, “Yeah, sure, I’m game.” He’s like, “Really?” I’m like, “Yeah, I was like, you’re gonna coach? I’ll do it.” So I rolled up there and the whole soccer field was full of kids. So I rolled up there in a pal Jeep with the big star logo on it. Get out of the Jeep and the field clears out in five minutes. Then I’m like, “Oh shit.” So me and the other guy, I’m literally chasing this lady down the street. And she was the slowest, oldest lady. I’m like, “I’m gonna catch her.” So I catch her and I speak Spanish and I’m talking there. I’m like, “Oh, I’m not here to arrest you. I’m not even a cop.” I said, “I’m here to give your kid soccer, a soccer program.” He’s like, “Oh, oh, oh.” So she makes a phone call and a couple other relatives come out. And then we start bringing the kids back to the field. And by the end of the summer, we had like a hundred kids in that soccer program. Well, it’s cool because now you know that they can run so they’d be good at soccer. (Both Laughing) But I had to break that stigma that I wasn’t there to arrest them, right? And that was like an eye-opening experience for me. That day when that happened, I was like, “Wow, this is kind of crazy.” Yeah, it really is.
All right, Noel. So I really appreciate you being here. It sounds like you’re doing the Lord’s work. And even if you aren’t, it’s helping society just by you doing that. I know you’re aware of this. And I think I’m telling the listeners so that if you can help out, you should go over there and help support mortoncountypal.org. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thanks, Tony. I really appreciate the time.
Hey, thanks again to Noel Devell of Martin County Police Athletic League. See the trick is, is that if you don’t know how to pronounce the last name, just go for it. Act like you know what you’re doing.
You could visit them at martincountypal.org. P-A-L martincountypal.org. Sounds like they’re doing a great thing there for the kids in that area. And if you’re in that area or just want to help support them, go over there, find out more, find out how you can help.
All right. So I’ve been teasing this a little bit. Uh, it hadn’t happened until today. Um, uh, Steersmarts was going to send me a bunch of stuff for the Jeep Talk Show 2021 Gladiator, uh, to improve the steering, uh, both on-road and off-road performance of the Gladiator. And, uh, been, uh, been waiting for the, the, the products to show up just because it’s fun to get stuff, uh, even more fun whenever you’re not having to pay, uh, hundreds or thousands of dollars to get something. So, uh, that showed up today. Uh, I was expecting a couple of things from, uh, from Amazon and, uh, was watching those, I heard the, the, the motion detector thing go off and, uh, looked outside and the FedEx guy, uh, pretty sure he was pissed off. I mean, I’m discussing because he kept bringing box after box, big boxes up to the, uh, up to the door. And, uh, it probably took me a good three to four minutes to bring everything in. So, uh, looking forward to that. And, oh, and you know, I think everybody’s this way. Everybody’s got a Jeep or anybody that likes putting stickers on their, on their vehicles, uh, the, uh, they sent me a bunch of stickers. I think it’s a sticker pack because, uh, I was sharing this with, uh, a few of the Jeep Talk Show team members and Natalie from a Chick Chat and stuff. Uh, she showed a picture of the stickers that she got in yesterday and they were the same ones that I’m showing here. Uh, if you’re, uh, if you’re on the YouTube watching this, you’re seeing some of these stickers, they got some really beautiful stickers. And I noticed that they have, uh, my wife thought this was, was a really cool one. Uh, they have a QR code right there that I have yet to scan. I’m going to go check that out and see, uh, I’m thinking it’s going to be some gratuitous pictures of, uh, Sasquatch. Uh, there’s another one of the same one. So, uh, there’s a, I just love stickers and I don’t know which one I’ve already put the book, put a couple of steer sports pick stickers here on the board behind me. Uh, but, uh, I don’t know which one of these I’m going to put on the gladiator. Uh, I like putting the, uh, the parts and stuff that I, uh, put on the gladiator, like putting on the, uh, the back windshield of, uh, the gladiator and to show people behind me and I put it on the driver’s side, so it doesn’t block my view. For anybody out there that was concerned for my safety.
All right. And that’s a wrap for today’s episode of the Jeep talk show. I’m going to give a big thank you to our special guests for joining us today and sharing their knowledge and experience with the Jeep community. Oh crap. I forgot to mention we are going to have, uh, Ryan from Gladius off-road. I want to think I can, I think I have a show and tell for that as well. Uh, it’s a good thing. I never clean up my desk. So, uh, Ryan over at Gladius off-road makes these three dimensional emblems and, uh, he made some, uh, for the interview, uh, so he could show them on an interview and I said, Hey, let me buy some of those. And of course, no, he just sends them. So actually, uh, Chris, uh, Jeep talk show Chris and I have these are really nice. I mean, it is, I mean, I think you can see that how this had the quality of the thing. It’s gorgeous and it’s, it’s, you know, it’s six out. It’s 3d. So yeah, anyway, you’ll learn more about that in the interview that we’re doing with Ryan of a gladiator soft road. You can go over there and check out all their products right now. Uh, I highly recommend them and beautiful products. I mean, I can see it directly and that’s going to be going on the 2021 Jeep talk show gladiator as well. So, uh, big shout out to, uh, to Ryan for, uh, for providing those to not John Lee me, but to Chris.
All right. So, uh, don’t forget that we have five episodes a week. It’s understandable if you’ve missed past episodes, because there’s, there’s a lot to listen to. The trick, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, the trick is we have competitors out there that talk about off road and Jeeps and so on and so forth. Um, my plan was that if we do five episodes a week, you won’t have time to listen to anybody else.
No, there’s always plenty of time to listen to other podcasts.
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.