{"id":246536,"date":"2026-07-18T09:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246536\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T09:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:58:17","slug":"retired-camden-nj-officer-shares-story-of-hope-in-new-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246536\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired Camden, NJ officer shares story of hope in new memoir"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Retired Camden police Officer Cody J. Smith joined us for a special Blue Friday to share the story behind a powerful new memoir, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Stuff-Basement-Cody-Jay-Smith\/dp\/B0GXSF11ZX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stuff in the Basement<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This memoir chronicles his personal journey through childhood trauma, a distinguished career in law enforcement, mental health challenges, and ultimately finding hope.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, a longtime community volunteer, wrote the book to show others they don\u2019t have to face their burdens alone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the story is deeply personal, my goal is to encourage others who may be carrying burdens they feel they have to face alone,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/attachment-jonas-jacobsson-0frj2scuy4k-unsplash.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash\" loading=\"lazy\" onload=\"this.parentNode.parentNode.classList.add('frame-loaded');\" onerror=\"this.parentNode.parentNode.classList.add('broken-image');\" fetchpriority=\"low\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\"\/>Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on UnsplashPhoto by Jonas Jacobsson on UnsplashA memoir with a mission<\/p>\n<p>What makes the project stand out is Smith\u2019s commitment to giving back. A portion of the proceeds from every book sold will support two outstanding local organizations:<\/p>\n<p>Love, Parker Foundation, which helps children and teens who have experienced trauma by funding participation in sports and music programs.The Bobby Scholl Foundation, which supports cystic fibrosis research and local youth sports initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Smith believes his story of resilience, public service, mental health awareness, and community impact will resonate.<\/p>\n<p>I am so happy that he has\u00a0reached out and joined me on the show for a conversation about the book, his experiences in law enforcement, the writing process, and how readers can support these important charities.<\/p>\n<p>You can hear the conversation here:<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations to Cody J. Smith on the release, and thank you for continuing to serve New Jersey through your story and your generosity.<\/p>\n<p>These are the best NJ high schools for sports<a href=\"https:\/\/stacker.com\/new-jersey\/best-high-schools-sports-new-jersey\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Stacker<\/a> put together a list of the best high schools for sports across New Jersey \u2014\u00a0using data from Niche that included sports championships, family surveys, student enrollment, athletic participation rate and sports options. Here&#8217;s the top 25.<\/p>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: Stacker<\/p>\n<p>The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill&#8217;s own.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nj1015.com\/camden-cody-smith-memoir\/mailto:trenton.dme@townsquaremedia.com?subject=Feedback or correction\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Report a correction<\/a> \ud83d\udc48<\/p>\n<p>FOLLOW BILL: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.messenger.com\/channel\/nj1015\/AbbM5qjM0IZt7cx2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Join the Bill Spadea&#8217;s New Jersey channel on our Facebook page.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired Camden police Officer Cody J. Smith joined us for a special Blue Friday to share the story&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[105486,69,71,70,31736,22960],"class_list":["post-246536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-bill-spadea","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-talking-about","tag-ultimate-new-jersey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}