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Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon AT&T at tmobile.com/keepandswitch. (upbeat music) - Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credits, service ported 90 plus days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to the five year plan podcast. - Hey! ♪ I am here, hooray ♪ ♪ I am here with Julian, Kevin, Andy, and Jesse ♪ - And your son. - And your son. - And my son Cameron. I've not walked anywhere near the distance these guys have. - Nause Cameron. - Nause Cameron, he's basically, he's been sat in the buggy the entire time. - He's not the character, he's not Nause J.D. - Well, that's true, Nause J.D. But yeah, we wanted to have a little chat with everybody, see how they're doing. Julian, how are you feeling? - I'm totally fucked. - Brilliant. But a worthwhile cause, right? - Of course it's a worthwhile cause. That's why we do it. But I'm so proud that I can walk and talk with my friends from F and YP and you know how much we support Palace and you know how much we support the fantastic work of Palace for Life. And I'm just very, very proud to be part of this little special club we have. - How important is it? We had a world mental health day yesterday. How important is it to be around friends and to have this kind of opportunity to spend a stretch period of time with them? - There is nothing more important than zooming out a bit in this mad world we live in and talking to people about your physical health and your mental health. There is nothing more important apart from peace and love. And once you get that, when you get to my age, you probably get it a bit more when you're younger. Nothing matters. Nothing is important. The football, it's a game field. It's not important. But this is such a wonderful experience to be part of. And I love every single one of the people I'm with today, fantastic. - Well, can I just caveat that by saying he's been moaning like a bastard for the last two and a half miles. - I'm totally fucked. - Yeah, and that's totally fair. I mean, you guys, I mean, Kevin, you, this is your eighth marathon. - Ouch. - It is. - Which is-- - On top of my 63 mile walk for the Lilly Foundation. - Incredible. Incredible. By the time you've done this, you've basically nearly done 100 miles of walking in the space. - I know, where's my statue? - Well, there isn't one, but there was a bottle of whiskey, so you had that. - We did have a couple of miniatures which helped up the hill. I just had to give a pep talk to some first timers because, unfortunately, the people-- And then, as a trustee, I will be having words with the foundation about this. The people that set the route are clearly professional athletes and route setters who don't live from out here, who unnecessarily took us to Bula Hill and sent us back down, big in here, and up again. So people are struggling. It's been hard. It's been the last couple of miles been hard. But all the things are-- - That's been hard, isn't it? - All the things that Prince had studied and said-- I didn't hear what he said, but it would have been the usual. We had a friendship, Crystal Palace, how well we're doing. And all those things count. And it's always lovely to see-- I'd love to see you, Rob, but seeing a little Cameron puts a spring in our step, a little smile on his face. - He's been giving you some pep talks, hasn't he? - He's been doing some great. Come on, Julian. - I've only given him the Jack Daniels with a good idea. - No, that's true, but-- - That's a good point. - Get him in the kind of frame of mind early on. Andy, are you happy to talk now? - I am. I'm just delighted that the organizers took on board my feedback from last year as to the route. I said, not enough hills near the end. Please put a bit more on, because I'm quite masochistic. It is very south London to have these many hills. I mean, cell has park itself is basically surrounded by hills in three directions, essentially. So it doesn't surprise me that we're going up hills, but it's not fun to do it. - There's no ways around it. - That's true. - Last year was all downhill. - Sorry, all of it. - I don't know how it could all be downhill. You have to go up to come down, don't you? But I would say this hard work is nothing as in comparison to the great hard work that the foundation does. - Well done, well done. - You know, the amazing work the staff do, the amazing work trustees like Kevin does, amazing work that volunteers do, the amazing work that everyone's done for today, and the amazing difference that the foundation makes to see how hard to reach people locally in south London. - I'm glad that finally someone has acknowledged how difficult it is for me to go to four meetings a year. (laughing) - I don't get the credit I deserve for turning up a four meetings a year. (laughing) - It is one of those things that, I mean, the Palace for Life Foundation are doing a huge amount of outreach into the communities around here. And it's not just, you know, we talk about mental health, and we talk about all the problems that Croydon has as a, as a borough, and the challenges that people in Croydon are facing. But it's also just providing young people with opportunities to kind of, to work, to experience work, to go into workplaces, to have, you know, even things like collecting football boots so that kids can play football at the local park. These kind of things, they look like, they feel like mine are kind of fundraising initiatives, but it ultimately helps young people in Croydon have a life that they maybe wouldn't have otherwise. It embeds the club in the community and clubs of the size of Palace are nothing without community around them. You know, they're beside that, just, you know, businesses that bring in some money. And I think the reason that lots of Palace fans feel it's such a special club of the links to the community. And the foundation is the clearest manifestation of that. And I can't put it any better than that. And that, whether that is outreach to young kids, whether that is the football programs, the talent pathways, whether that is the crime prevention programs, the employment prospects, programs that they do, the disability sports programs that they do is, it's being plugged into every aspect of the community. Palace for Life Foundation is the conduit for that. Without that, it would just be a football club in the middle of an area. And it's also, it's run by really decent Palace fans as well, which sounds stupid, but you know, these are the people who really deeply care about Crystal Palace about the image that Crystal Palace project. And that image that they project is one of positivity and hope. And I think people forget that about, I used to live in Croydon and I see the potential for Croydon, but I also hear so much about how awful Croydon is from people who either don't live there or who visit there on a semi-regular basis. You know, there are problems in Croydon, but there is also potential for Croydon. And there are people who deserve, you don't just write people off. I always think you should never write someone off at their lowest point. And I always believe that about communities like Croydon where I think people really kind of, it's very easy to put the boot in, but it's much harder to go into these areas and say, how do we make it better? And that's what Palace for Life are trying to do. - Yeah, I mean, Palace for Life talk a lot about the power of the brand of, you know, if you go in somewhere, whether that is to speak to young people in schools that are in disadvented areas or anything else, like the brand of a Premier League football club is very, very powerful. And ultimately, you know, it's not about talking about bad things about South London. Obviously are bad things, but actually projecting a message of hope and a message that there are things that we can do just to make the area better and to help out communities to, you know, improve employment prospects or reduce crime and all those sorts of things that are super worthwhile. And so keep giving, keep giving us more money for helping out the foundation. It's vital work. It really does make a difference. It really does make a difference to the young people around South London, all the programs. Look at the website, look at all the great stuff that they're doing. It's not money that be wasted. Anything that you can give, you know, obviously these are difficult times with the cost of the living crisis, but anything that you can give, whether that's, you know, 50 per pound, whatever it is, it makes a difference. And if you can't give, give your time, give your opportunity to, you know, promote it to other people who might want to give, you know, try and, if you see one of our stories asking for people to donate, share it on your Instagram, share it on your Facebook, share it on your Twitter account, whatever you, wherever it is, you share it, do it. Because that might go to someone who has got the resources to be able to afford to give some money to the charity. And ultimately that will help, that will help the area. It helps the club. And I think Julian is now running downhill. - Sorry. - Oh, mind the doctor. - Oh, very good. - Thank you. - Very communal approach there from Julian. - That's like, how are we? - Yeah, we're good. So yeah, we were just talking about the value of what Palace for Life do in the area. And it's just so vitally important. - Yes, it is. - Yeah. - Sorry, I could go, I can extend my answer. I think it's great that we've managed to get the organisation going over the years and it's got better and better at what it does. The staff have learnt more and more. They're engaging more and more. And long may it continue. - I'll tell you one other thing, right? As a Palace fan, coming to matches, I always feel like I'm doing my bit when it comes to being at a game in terms of adding a voice to-- - To the referee and the officials and the lines. - Yes, to shouting abuse at people who probably don't deserve it. Anyway, but coming to doing the marathon march, you feel like you're contributing, don't you? - I'm very lucky. I've been around the Premier League clubs the last two or three years deliberately to go to away games. Had the pleasure going to Everton the other week. Met some really, really great guys in the pub, in the ground and in the advisory board. Palace are a community club. And it's the heart and soul of every single fan from the Croydon South London area that support Palace. We've supported them for, in my case, 55 odd years. And the community that Palace engaged with means so much to us all. And it means so much to most fans in most clubs, in most divisions and leagues in England and around Europe. And it's fantastic to be part of that community, that church as we call it, that shared experience. And it's a very visceral and powerful emotion. And as we near Selhas Park now, we are slightly overwhelmed emotionally for the physical endurance we've undertaken on behalf of one of the most wonderful causes. And as I said to you, rather I'm just so proud to be surrounded by friends who I go to matches with, apart from Andy Street. And it just means so much more to share that experience with our friends we've met through Palace and our friends we've met through Palace for Life. It is a fantastic experience. Thank you so much to everyone that's been joining us on this day. And thanks so much for everybody that's contributed. Or it's two quid or five quid, which means so much to us all. And Julian, our friendship has pretty much grown around Palace for Life, hasn't it? I mean, I think one of the first times we really got to know each other was on the bubble walk that we did. There was that, and also of course, because you are from my town in Surrey and we used to go to beer festivals together. But yes, it is. I think so, it is very, very important that you get to know people so much better. And you make other guys, it's great. That's it, that's it. So yeah, right, I'm going to quickly see if my son has anything to say. Cameron, do you want to say anything? Yeah. It seems to say a three-field, a bit tiny, three-twenty-five. Crystal Palace was there, the Crystal Palace was boom, boom, boom. That's right, boom, boom, boom, boom, that's right. Jesse, how are you feeling? Hey Rob, thanks for joining us today. Yeah, it's been great. I've been really, really buzzing today. It's been all seasons in a day, where Brightie was on good form. Steve Parrish made an appearance. That was always good to see. And, you know, I think it's the fourth one I've done now. Yeah, and one second. It's been a tricky start to the season for Palace. And usually we don't like international breaks. So we're looking to England for some light relief, didn't get that either. So actually today has been a really nice way to take a break from tricky football and forget all that, to spend time doing something good for the club. 228 people, I think they turned out today and were open to the record. And they've done a great job, really well organised. It's also quite a nice opportunity after a bad start to the season to kind of dissect things a little bit with people that you're like minding with that, isn't it? Yeah, we haven't talked a great deal of football today though. Well, that's actually good with them. Yeah, we tried to, but then it's sort of moving on to other things. Yeah. It starts to catch up when we talk. We're talking about who we should sign in January. Right. And we ran out of ideas pretty quickly. And then, yeah, we just talked about the England match on Thursday. Looking forward to the forest match now, just hoping you can get something back on track. I think we just need to play, to me I think we need to try and play not to lose. Which might be against Bosnia's instinct, but we've kind of got a build. We've got a build from here and let's see what we get to, but you know. We're coming into view of Selhurst Park. What are your feelings right now? It's great, it's actually really lovely weather. It's a beautiful sunset in Selhurst. We've got some nice pictures, I'm sure, that we've walked around the pitch. In the daylight as well, none of this darkness that we've been dealing with previously. I think we've actually got a few family members between us, to greet us as well, so. Great, won't it? Exactly, so it should be a good finale and don't forget to every penny counts, so please do dig deep, if there's any change down the back of the sofa, please do not too late. It's not too late, by the time you listen to this, it is not too late. It's still a donate. It's the Crystal Palace Stadium, isn't it Cameron? Yes. Otherwise maybe we'll start posting pictures of our blisters tomorrow, you've been warned. That's it. Yeah, right, we're going to probably be in part two with Mike or Bobby, but join us in part two hopefully, where we can have a chat with them about the importance of what Palace for Life do. Right, I'm here with Bobby and Mike, the two head honchos, the Palace for Life. Two's, I think Mike's the head honch. Mike is the head honchator. I guess Bobby's the underling. I'll take it. The minion. Whoa, which Mike said has given the colour a few of the August did get called minions by passers-by along the waves. The yellow tops. Yeah. Bobby is the fundraising supremo. That's it, yeah. I'll take that. Yeah, I'll take that. One of the nicest guys in fundraising, I believe. Wow. At Palace at least. The only guy in fundraising in Paris, I can't take it, I'm very honest. But he's one of the nicest. He's in the top three nicest fundraising people you've got at Palace for Life Foundation. Yeah, that's it. The top three, you're third, so well done. The Marathon March is a brilliant event. I mean, it's the highlight of your calendar, calendar, essentially, isn't it? And it's the biggest fundraising event that you have every year. What kind of impact does that have on the community and the work that you guys do? I think it's multi-fold. I think there's a massive impact in terms of the money we raise. So we are shooting for 80,000 or more? Yeah, 100,000 was what we got last year, so if we can beat that again, incredible. But yeah, anything north of 80,000 is always just massive for the work that we do in terms of allowing us to grow, allowing us to target specific areas that we know are issues in South London, or areas that we know that we're having a particularly strong impact on. We can kind of push the Marathon March funds towards those areas to improve that and to grow it and to bring more people on board to, essentially, the kind of goal is to reach more young South London. So I know it sounds really simple, but to do that, we need more staff, we need more places that we can work, more classrooms, more football pitches, more equipment, and more employability programs, more one-to-one mentoring, more work with our disability teams, et cetera. And everything has a cost, doesn't it? Everything has a cost. We're quite a people-related business. If you're mentoring, one mentor can maybe support 30 to 40 young people in the year to give them a real quality, deep, focused mentoring. If you want to double the number of young people you want to mentor, because so many young people around here growing up with massive challenges in mental health, et cetera, you need to increase your mentoring team. So that's a direct cost of hiring staff, hiring venues for football facilities, because obviously we play at the academy, which is amazing. We get to play here at Selho's Park for a couple of weeks of the year, but a lot of the time we're looking to be all over South London. So we're hiring venues, and that comes at a cost. So all the money that comes in makes such a big difference, but I think in addition to the money raised, which is 50% of why we do this, the other is just bringing the palace community together, and it's our eighth time as you know, Rob, and so many friendships have been spawned out of this. So many kind of walking groups have kind of ad hoc come out of this with people getting together throughout the summer to walk together, and also, Bobby, I know you've had various conversations with people today who want to do more, they want to volunteer, be a playmaker for the foundation. Exactly that. Yeah, it's bringing the community together and also educating them on our work, because a lot of people take part in the walk to raise money, as you guys do, I think you guys have obviously got a very clear idea of the work that we do, but some people don't know, which is obviously fine. So being able to talk to people, we have 16 of our staff, including Mike, took part today, and are more than happy to talk to all of the walkers as they go around about their specific work they're doing with the young people in the community, the difference they're making, they're all quite, almost blase about it, because they are so good at the work they do, and they do realise, but they don't realise how impressive it is the work they're doing. It's very un-British to kind of blow your own trumpet and say, "I do all this important stuff," because that just isn't what we do. It goes against them for a reason, for it to exist. Exactly, yeah. Because Mike said that one mentor can properly deeply work with up to 30 to 40 young people in a year, that's incredible, that's taken to all young people, who go from a particular low they might be feeling, or a particular issue they're struggling with, to then feeling more confident, being able to go and get a job, being able to essentially aid, let's say, feel great in themselves, and also be a real addition to society in our local community in South London. And if one mentor can do that to 30, 40 people, as Mike said, bringing on more mentors can only enhance that, and we can only work with more, because I think we've got that to that 30, 40 number. I think there's around 32 on our waiting list still, and unfortunately that can be, that waiting list someone can be on that for up to six months, because we want the work to be meaningful with them, so we don't want the mentors to be stretched and just doing surface-level stuff, so... Time to turn around to a mentor and go, "You're now going to sport 80 young people in the year because the service halves." Yeah. And you're dealing with some really tough cases. You're dealing with young people referred to us by mental health services, referred to us by the youth offending services, young people coming out of care. It's a tough world out there, in particular in parts of Croydon Lambeth, areas where we work. That's a big need. It's because people get, it's almost, it's one of those areas that's kind of rife for young people being targeted by people who want to exploit them. Yeah. So you're essentially wedging yourself in between that and stopping that from happening, and that is crucial, isn't it? Totally helping young people build resilience, and giving them the hope and the ambition to go. I don't need to get into a life of crime. I can go and do things with my life. And maybe that's not their starting point, but our goal through our programs are mentoring, our game on employability program, our kicks, football sessions, coming to contact with positive role models, just makes a difference. And if you can change a few young people's lives around, divert them from crime and show them on a path to a better life, then that's amazing. And events like the Marathon March are helping raise funds for that. And again, back to my point about, it's not just about the funds, it's about the building of the community. We're always looking for palace fans with skills to come and say, hey, I'll work with you and help a group of young people on one of your employability programs. And through the conversations that we have on the march, we're uncovering those opportunities and the marches are understanding what we do and how they can potentially help. And if you have particular skills that would be useful to Palace for Life, please get in touch with Mike, please get in touch with Bobby, you know, they have a social media account, there are lots of social media accounts, I'm sure that if you were to DM or even reply to something there and say that you're interested in helping, that is a great way to start the conversation. Totally, just contact us and say you're interested in helping, and it doesn't matter who they're contact. Definitely. And we'll put it through to the right person. To that point, yeah, we've got a dedicated team that look after, it's not their sole job, but they do look after the volunteers, so it's called our Playmaker Scheme. And there's particular benefits to the people that join in, so we like to do a thank you event for them every year as well, to obviously thank for their work and their volunteering of their time throughout the year. But there's a dedicated team that will look after you as well and help you to the places that your kind of skills are going to help us best around the foundation, whether that is you're particularly skilled at accounting or it doesn't have to be specifically helping the young people, that's obviously ideal, but if you've got skills with what accounts when you've had people work on law kind of items for us, et cetera, to kind of just lessen the burden on us, so that as much of our time, as much of our work can go towards helping young people in South London, say. Rob, we'll be calling you in more, I think. No, I'm forward. The other great thing about the march is some of the people who turn up, so brighty walked the whole way. Steve came and joined with a knee injury as well, I mean, brighty's had quite a serious knee injury and he still turned up. So he had some very heavy duty medication today to keep it incredible. I mean, that guys just is a bit a born winner isn't he, and he puts his body through it every year. Yeah. I believe Steve came to the lunch. Yeah, yeah, he talked to everyone who goes on. Yeah, and it's just such a great event, and I love, I mean, I didn't do the whole walk just to be clear, but I love being part of it and trying to promote the values of Palace for Life. As a Palace fan, I always look at like, the club is just kind of almost secondary to everything else, and if you can get involved in Palace for Life, it really does make a difference, and I think that's just so vitally important. Yeah, massive. As a Palace fan myself as well, it really sounds like a cliche, but it makes me so proud, not just events like this, but when I get some in a really privileged position where I can go and visit some of the sessions and see the work firsthand, and it's just a real sense of pride that like my club, the badges there, the people that I'm working with are such great people. So it's a fantastic feeling to see that. And then when it all comes together on a day like this and we're sitting now with all the conversations, the marchers, boards on, the floodlights on, it does get much better. I wish all listeners could see what we see here with sitting in this, in the main stand looking out over a resplendent, Selva's part with beautiful branding all around the stadium, congratulations, Marath, the marchers. It just looks phenomenal. It's amazing. It's so inspirational. What's next, Bobby? What's next? Well, on a fundraising side of it, we're hopefully going to be launching the bike ride soon, which we'll be back to sell as part this year. So a slight change. I won't give away too much so the comms team don't get upset. But we'll be launching that in the next couple of weeks, which will be good fun. Hopefully I'll be taking part in that as well because that is genuinely the most fun over a weekend. And then from there, we've got a load of other different fundraising things going on throughout the year. We'll have a couple of raffles, a couple of auctions of different items that we've been gifted. And then hopefully we'll have Palisade at the end of the season, which has been great fun over the last couple of years. I think we had 1,000 supporters here to watch it this year just gone. I think it was 787 or something, 886, a gold fest. The trade cast of the traitors here. One of the trades to cover is named Tackled, a fairly dodgy tackle on Harry Johnson. Harry Clark. Harry Clark. So that's why AJ is not here. He's still recovering. Oh, really? But I did have a fangirl moment where I met Diane. Oh, really? And I was just in awe of the woman. Such a good show. So that's coming up on the horizon. And yeah, it's just constant trying to push as much fundraising items as we can, trying to get some new events in there as well, which will probably start slow and hopefully build up as many as we can to the size of the marathon march. Amazing. Well, from me as a Palace fan, thank you to both of you for your efforts in getting this organised. I know it's no easy feat, but I know that everybody that takes part in it feels like they've been valued by what they've done, and they've added kind of value to what you guys are doing. So yeah, thank you. And if you have any spare change, please do donate to Palace for Life. We're going to have our link in the bio, but like any money that you can spare. And even if you can't spare it, share the news, try and get the message out, and maybe someone else can raise funds for them. Yeah, on that, as little as two to five pounds can make such, for example, with our disability team, two to five pound could buy one sensory kit, and that can be used by multiple young people who are struggling with any kind of issues that they might have with that social or a disability they have. We can buy something like that as small as that, or a couple of footballs, it all adds up massively. So yeah, I can only second your thoughts to give what you can, basically. That's it. Well, thanks guys. Thank you Rob. We'll catch you again soon. We'll do. See you next year Rob. Yeah, we'll be. Yeah. This podcast is part of the sports social podcast network. Vice President Kamala Harris. I get it. The cost of rent, groceries, and utilities is too high. So here's what we're going to do about it. We will lower housing costs by building more homes and crack down on landlords who are charging too much. We will lower your food and grocery bills by going after price gougers, or keeping the cost of everyday goods too high. You work hard for your paycheck. You should get to keep more of it. As president, I'll make that my priority. I'm Kamala Harris, candidate for president, and I approve this message. Paid for by Harris for president.
