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For George Palmer III, it’s in the DNA.
The executive director of the Altoona-based Center for Independent Living of South Central Pennsylvania, which serves disabled people in seven counties, grew up on his family’s resort-like constellation of Christian-themed attractions in Maryland.
There, at a complex now called Sandy Cove Ministries, Palmer frequently encountered disabled people like the ones he serves now, and there, he first displayed the entrepreneurial, recruitment and managerial skills that help him set policies in his current role.
There also, Palmer met the woman who became his wife, whose Blair County home place became an attraction when Palmer decided to strike out on his own, moving from the nonprofit world of his family to the corporate world.
It was a move that validated his estimate of those talents, and helped prepare him for transition back to the kind of nonprofit role he now plays.
In that role, he helps ensure the agency fulfills core functions that include peer counseling, advocacy, skills training, information and referral and assistance in transitioning to a better situation.
Founded by Palmer’s grandfather, the complex in North East, Md., was “consciously and intentionally non-denominational,” Palmer said.
That spirit of acceptance extended to any creed, any race, any age, any disability, Palmer said.
It was a spirit based on the idea that “God sees the soul” – not a person’s ability or lack thereof, Palmer said.
The complex, incorporated under the umbrella of “Morning Cheer,” the name of his grandfather’s pioneering Depression-era Christian radio show in Philadelphia, comprised a Bible conference, a hotel, a boys camp, a girls camp – and an orphanage in India.
Palmer was raised on the 500-acre ranch, which had a full-sized gym and pool, regular rodeos and a capacity for 320 kids – including those with disabilities.
“I grew up wiping drool off chins and wiping butts,” he said.
One of his mentors was Cordell Brown, who had cerebral palsy.
Brown ran a program in Ohio for kids who were disabled, and he brought them periodically to Morning Cheer.
Those visits were “raucous, noisy,” Palmer said.
The staff would remove chairs in the front of the auditorium and roll the kids into that space in their wheelchairs.
“They were the heroes of the week,” Palmer said.
Brown, who was “cutting edge” with his inclusionist ideas, wanted “any kid with a disability to do what any kid without a disability could do,” Palmer said.
Palmer began working on the ranch at age 14 at his own request, intrigued by the “cool, exciting, fun things” he saw and the interesting people.
With his two brothers and three cousins, he labored in the kitchen, mowed grass and took kids on horseback rides and camping and canoe trips.
After college, he became ranch director, and realizing the “days of horseback had expired,” he updated it, looking to bring its amenities up to speed with the times, to make it exciting for the current kids, to make it conform to the market.
It set a pattern he has repeated.
“I’m a transition guy,” he said. “A change agent.”
In the summer, he would recruit and hire hundreds of staffers, including cooks, waiters, lifeguards, groundskeepers, janitors, sound engineers and 30 musicians.
The musicians rehearsed daily and gave a fresh, live concert every Saturday for as many as 3,000 people – ranch attendees, those staying at the organization’s hotel and others who came from outside.
There would be a distinguished Christian speaker every week, daily morning and evening services, sailing, swimming, water skiing and fishing.
But in the early 1990s, he decided he needed to craft his own identity, apart from the family heritage.
So he and wife Tonya came to this area, where he joined LeapFrog Technologies as a project development and marketing representative.
He crisscrossed the country, attending trade shows, interacting with potential buyers and figuring out “selling points and price points” to determine a niche for the product, proving to himself that he had what it took, helping the company create the basis for what is now a successful, nationally known, item.
Thus reassured, Palmer III turned back to his first love, the church and the nonprofit world.
But he did it on his own terms.
He helped modernize services at Olivet Baptist Church in Bellwood, after noticing that they weren’t “resonating,” and that the kids
couldn’t wait to escape the obligation.
He helped make the services more contemporary, with fewer traditional hymns, but with drums, guitars, power points and lights.
The effort culminated with the hiring of a youth pastor.
In 1994, he founded FrontLine Ministries.
The effort at Olivet had helped kids who attended church, but not the “unchurched kids,” who populated the streets of Bellwood after school until curfew.
They lacked homes that appealed to them, so he obtained a house and helped create a “safe, homelike environment.”
He called it “The Door.”
There, for a couple hours a day, the kids were “loved and welcomed,” got help with homework and a chance to play in a yard.
Early on, there were chips and soda, but when Palmer realized that many needed more, The Door began providing dinner once a week, cooked on site, so the kids could appreciate the sounds of preparation and homey smells before sitting down to eat.
The Door is now an independent spin-off, staffed with a married couple, and provides a cooked meal every weeknight.
Later, Palmer and FrontLine refocused on traumatic brain injury, after a friend of his daughters was in a vehicle crash.
That mission provides retreats for survivors’ caregivers, many of whom get no respite “24-seven-365,” he said.
The work with traumatic brain injury patients led him to the CIL, which serves TBI consumers.
FrontLine has other projects, including an environmental initiative in Burma run by Palmer’s daughter Kaitlyn, the Gideon Project, which mentors young men and women in hopes they will become good spouses and productive leaders in their families and communities; and the Bellwood Project, which looks for “people with needs” and seeks to serve them.
Working under Palmer at the CIL is “fun, actually,” said independent living specialist Courtney Petrauskas.
Palmer is passionate about the center’s work, and insists the staff “focus” on the people it serves, not just their agency-related issues, she said.
In one exemplary case, Palmer and a contractor whose volunteer services he’d recruited helped fix a consumer’s roof, she said.
Many of the people the center helps live in continual crisis and desperation, according to Palmer.
“The depth of their needs really resonates with me,” he said
He’s trying to make the center a place where they can come, relax and enjoy themselves.
If there’s a common denominator to his career, “it’s passion and compassion for the unfortunate members of our community,” he said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.