Speaker 1: For thirty five years, Cindy Stumpo has been a female
Speaker 1: home builder with a passion for design, a mastery of detail,
Speaker 1: and a commitment to her crack.
Speaker 2: With daughter Samantha Stumpo by her side, I.
Speaker 3: Don't need my whole family on a date with me.
Speaker 3: That's a good note.
Speaker 2: It's goddamn weird. See.
Speaker 1: Stumpo Development is the only second generation female construction company
Speaker 1: in the country.
Speaker 4: You're crazy, You're a wacko, You're insane. I mean, it
Speaker 4: just doesn't end together.
Speaker 1: Cindy and Samantha welcome guests to explore the world of construction,
Speaker 1: real estate, development, design and more. Here.
Speaker 2: I'm predictable. Every time I think I know what you want,
Speaker 2: you switch it out. But that's what makes your houses
Speaker 2: all us.
Speaker 1: They discuss anything that happens between the roof and the foundation.
Speaker 2: Nothing is off limits. You truly do care about everybody.
Speaker 4: She can yell at, you can scream, but when you
Speaker 4: get her alone, she's the best person on the planet.
Speaker 1: Cindy Stumpo is tough as nails.
Speaker 3: And I'm being the studio with who Samantha, what did
Speaker 3: you have a last name? Stumpa? Oh? Thank you? Okay,
Speaker 3: and we have Dan Cummings and Dan.
Speaker 5: I am the founding president of Journey Forward, which is
Speaker 5: a non profit organization that is dedicated to bettering the
Speaker 5: lives of those paralysis to an intense exercise based program
Speaker 5: and were located in Canton, Massachusetts.
Speaker 6: Great and our superstar that I grew up with, that
Speaker 6: I had a crush on as a young girl.
Speaker 3: I'm fifty nine, how old you?
Speaker 2: I know you'll do the math sixty six?
Speaker 3: Right, Okay, it's had a crush on an older boy,
Speaker 3: Like what was I like eight?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 2: But you were watching probably the show as a latch
Speaker 2: key kid. No, I mean after.
Speaker 3: School and I waited Friday night so I had to come.
Speaker 2: Well, then you were interested in a much older man,
Speaker 2: David Joe. You were only five and I was like twelve.
Speaker 3: No, I was watching it.
Speaker 6: It went like this, It went like eight nine and
Speaker 6: then like that agy show at eleven o'clock.
Speaker 2: It was the Family Hour? Was it moved because we were
Speaker 2: on both at eight o'clock? And I think one year
Speaker 2: we were on at seven thirty, or if we weren't
Speaker 2: on at seven thirty, it was Nanny and the Professor
Speaker 2: that came on before us. But I thought we always
Speaker 2: a eving Pottage family, and then the Party family, and then.
Speaker 3: Then at eleven o'clock or that tent to eleven.
Speaker 2: Well, that was style Love American Style. That was from
Speaker 2: twenty two right, was on.
Speaker 3: And it was great.
Speaker 2: So what was I Love American Style? It was a
Speaker 2: great show.
Speaker 3: Great A bunch came out of what.
Speaker 2: Year sixty nine? Follow sixty nine?
Speaker 3: It stayed on for how long?
Speaker 2: Five years? Sixty So through the spring I wasn't remembering
Speaker 2: you the spring of seventy four.
Speaker 3: I couldn't remember four years old if I tried. So
Speaker 3: do they we run you guys.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, constantly. I mean it's never been it's
Speaker 2: never been off the air somewhere. It's always playing in
Speaker 2: other countries as well. So so, yeah, you watched it,
Speaker 2: and and you know, probably in two hour cycles, four
Speaker 2: episodes back to back.
Speaker 6: No, I watched it on I know how I watched it. It
Speaker 6: was you guys, the Pottage family, the other I don't know.
Speaker 2: And then you watch it later later because kids like
Speaker 2: they can't get enough of the same thing.
Speaker 3: On the major network and they played it.
Speaker 2: Did you notice that about your daughter, of course constantly
Speaker 2: watching the same thing when she was growing up.
Speaker 6: Yeah, if I had watched one more Little Mermaid, I might.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry it was Greece. Greece a Little Mermaid. I
Speaker 6: think we watched it a thousand times.
Speaker 3: Okay, well that's your fault. You introduced me to it.
Speaker 2: So you did the same thing with your mom with
Speaker 2: the Brady Bunch.
Speaker 3: Then I must have.
Speaker 6: And then I always wanted, Uh, what was the ones
Speaker 6: you watched in the morning you went to school?
Speaker 3: O Yea'll leave it to beaver and father's nose. I
Speaker 3: got that for you, mother, I got you like a
Speaker 3: whole set.
Speaker 6: I don't think I was born when they came out
Speaker 6: with that. All right, So Chris Christopher, what brings you
Speaker 6: together tonight?
Speaker 3: With Dan?
Speaker 2: I have luckily been a part of Dan's success in
Speaker 2: his organization. Uh, since it was an idea, since it
Speaker 2: was a fresh idea. I knew Dan's brother, who's an actor,
Speaker 2: writer director in Los Angeles. This is now fifteen years ago,
Speaker 2: fifteen sixteen years ago, when Dan was just putting together
Speaker 2: the concept of opening a facility and as a nonprofit
Speaker 2: and was looking to raise funds to do that, and
Speaker 2: his brother Jimmy knew me said he needs he might
Speaker 2: need somebody to you know, celebrity host to help him out.
Speaker 2: And so I said, well, I tell me about Dan.
Speaker 2: And I learned about Dan enough to know, you know,
Speaker 2: it sounds like this is something I should be part of.
Speaker 2: And then in meeting Dan.
Speaker 6: And hearing Dan that was supposed to go to a
Speaker 6: year ago in Denham, a legacy place. Yes, it's been
Speaker 6: a year ready, wow, Okay, wait time ago?
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, that's ago. Now it's all coming to me.
Speaker 2: Okay now, so we've been doing it now for fifteen years.
Speaker 3: Okay, perfect.
Speaker 6: So you you actually knew was brother in la and
Speaker 6: that's how it brought you to Boston.
Speaker 8: That brought me to Boston.
Speaker 2: And I've always liked Boston. I've always had friends here,
Speaker 2: you know. I have a career in high tech back
Speaker 2: in the eighties and nineties that brought me into Boston
Speaker 2: for Macworld when it was here, And have a number
Speaker 2: of very special of friends that live in the area.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's always been it's always been a very
Speaker 2: special place. I was, you know, born in New York
Speaker 2: City but raised on the West Coast. Always like Boston more.
Speaker 3: I don't blame you, So don't we stay here?
Speaker 2: Easier to live.
Speaker 6: So let me ask you something, Chris. So, you left
Speaker 6: acting in nineteen eighty eight to pursue a business career
Speaker 6: in computer industry.
Speaker 2: Right, it didn't intend to, but that's what happened.
Speaker 3: So what did you stay in acting longer?
Speaker 2: If you well, you know, see, acting is something that
Speaker 2: you are and takes so little time. Of the work
Speaker 2: part takes so little time compared to the pursuing part
Speaker 2: that it leaves a lot of time to do something else.
Speaker 2: But it's not compatible with the career path someplace else.
Speaker 2: So when I got into high tech, you know, I started,
Speaker 2: you know, not knowing anything, and then into you know,
Speaker 2: being a manager and then working for companies that were
Speaker 2: public and it's like you can't say, I'm not going
Speaker 2: to be here on Tuesday, I have an interview, you know,
Speaker 2: you have meetings and stuff like that, and so eventually
Speaker 2: it's just like, yeah, I don't have time for it,
Speaker 2: you know, pursuing of that anymore.
Speaker 3: Did you if you could go back in time, would
Speaker 3: you have been a kid actor?
Speaker 2: Yes? In my case, I wouldn't put it this way.
Speaker 2: Let me ask the question, let me answer the question
Speaker 2: as though you asked me. If you had a kid,
Speaker 2: would you let them be a child actor? I would say,
Speaker 2: you know, I know now I would say no. But
Speaker 2: then the question you ask, yes, it was good for
Speaker 2: me and I and people say, well, how can you
Speaker 2: reconcile them too? Well, the reason is is it was
Speaker 2: a unique experience, one that I still learned from today
Speaker 2: how much it causes me to be who I am.
Speaker 2: The show was was unique in the message it was
Speaker 2: sending and in the way that it lived those values.
Speaker 3: Inside with children and married.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's about getting along and that's all you know
Speaker 2: as children. This is the reason it resonates with kids
Speaker 2: and why I call it a filter that you know
Speaker 2: all kids pass through. They've all watched a show at
Speaker 2: some point if they've been introduced to it. Kids like
Speaker 2: watching kids. You know, every child is looking for how
Speaker 2: they fit, even in the family they were born into.
Speaker 2: The more kids you have, the more struggles they have
Speaker 2: with understanding exactly where they fit. But that's the first
Speaker 2: community that we all live in.
Speaker 3: So you had your work family.
Speaker 2: Right, But I had I had, Yes, I had the
Speaker 2: work family and you know, these these surrogate brothers and sisters,
Speaker 2: But I had lessons that it was actually being taught
Speaker 2: while I was saying lines, uh inadvertently, you know that
Speaker 2: I wasn't learning at home?
Speaker 6: And when you went home, did they have to ground
Speaker 6: you like you're You're like no, but you're just Christopher
Speaker 6: in this house, like you're not Peter Brady.
Speaker 2: They didn't even have to work at that.
Speaker 3: You didn't even have to work at that.
Speaker 2: No, it's just where you your place in the second morning,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, So it was, uh, yeah, don't My
Speaker 2: family wasn't at all.
Speaker 3: The Bradies, was it? I don't think so why I got.
Speaker 2: This experience of both like what that's like because it's aspirational.
Speaker 2: My mom hated it because it was aspirational. I'm thinking,
Speaker 2: what's wrong aspirational? I'm only thirteen years old.
Speaker 3: Mom took you to work every day, dropped you off for.
Speaker 2: The studio, then drop me off, stay.
Speaker 6: There, stay there. Oh, she stayed with you. You have
Speaker 6: to have a guardian, so back then parents had to
Speaker 6: be there.
Speaker 2: I have a younger brother, seven years younger than me.
Speaker 2: I'm eleven years old. He's four five years. She can't
Speaker 2: spend it with him. He's being raised by my sister,
Speaker 2: who's three years younger, by an eight year old.
Speaker 3: So, but she had to be with you in the studio.
Speaker 2: This is why I say to people and they say, well,
Speaker 2: you know, my kid's cute. I want them to be
Speaker 2: an actor. Maybe you should just see I stay away,
Speaker 2: don't do it. You don't have any idea of what
Speaker 2: you're introducing yourself to. The very worst that can happen
Speaker 2: is that he's a success, because now, gla do you
Speaker 2: do with the family?
Speaker 6: Okay, that's going to be It's just it's very unique
Speaker 6: to me to think about that, right, And how were
Speaker 6: you schooled?
Speaker 3: Homeschool in the studio?
Speaker 2: No, we have studio school. And the way that our
Speaker 2: production worked a Monday after school got out, we started
Speaker 2: production in summer, worked all summer because those days where
Speaker 2: there was no school over summer, you got eight hours
Speaker 2: of work in. Got it okay, and then you had
Speaker 2: to have three hours.
Speaker 6: I always have to this hold that I thought we're
Speaker 6: going to break this the city Stubble Toughest Nails on
Speaker 6: w BZ News Radio ten thirty.
Speaker 4: It'll be Right Back, sponsored by Floor and Decor, National
Speaker 4: Lumber and Village Bank. Autumn turns to winter, and then
Speaker 4: winter turns the.
Speaker 6: Spring and welcome back to the Toughest Nails on WBC
Speaker 6: News L ten thirty and I'm City out Hey with Samantha.
Speaker 2: And Cummings and Christopher Night.
Speaker 3: You guys should know this by now. You know how,
Speaker 3: you know what to do, Like, I don't have to
Speaker 3: cue you guys into it. I really should I.
Speaker 6: Do this, this, this, this, this, we'll do the thing
Speaker 6: of motion. One question before we go into some question is,
Speaker 6: and I might have been that song or another song
Speaker 6: in my memory, you lost your voice?
Speaker 3: Did they make you do that on purpose? Or was
Speaker 3: your voice changing the song?
Speaker 2: We just heard this song.
Speaker 3: I wanted to get to that part, but it was.
Speaker 2: Exactly messages in the song.
Speaker 6: So what happened? Would you have lougeously? Why did you
Speaker 6: have a loungeeditius? Your voice was changing like in real
Speaker 6: life and you couldn't keep up.
Speaker 2: But what's really happening? Or what was happening in my
Speaker 2: mind as we did it?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: Both? So what was really happening? They wrote they wrote
Speaker 2: a show about, you know, family of kids who wanted
Speaker 2: to be singers.
Speaker 3: No they didn't.
Speaker 6: You want to get a silver plat of your parents
Speaker 6: you couldn't afford. And I got to tell you how
Speaker 6: the story goes.
Speaker 3: Yes, she's always right, don't you know?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Look at? Look At. I do a podcast with
Speaker 2: with my brother Barry, right, So we do it so
Speaker 2: that we can watch the episodes of the first time
Speaker 2: in sixty years, so we understand what the audience has
Speaker 2: been watching this whole time, because we're the last to
Speaker 2: actually understand the.
Speaker 6: Show because you did like, but we watched it, so
Speaker 6: we're concentrating.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, so we're trying to get caught up by
Speaker 2: bye bye watching it. So you're right, we did review
Speaker 2: this episode, but I seem to have already forgotten what
Speaker 2: I review. Yes, well, I know the voice was changing,
Speaker 2: so to me, look at, I have no skills in
Speaker 2: this area. I knew it at a very early age.
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, they're asking us to sing,
Speaker 2: and I'm not able to hold my my you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not able to keep up right, So
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm like holding them down. But don't
Speaker 2: but don't make me do this because it's just humiliating.
Speaker 2: So now they write a show and they point out
Speaker 2: I can't sing. That's what's going through my head. I'm
Speaker 2: thinking they're humiliating purposely and uh, you know it was
Speaker 2: a it was a I have to say it was
Speaker 2: the bleakest week all the weeks of all the shows
Speaker 2: I did. I watch it now and I laugh because
Speaker 2: it is kind of fun funny. I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 2: scarred into a laugh.
Speaker 3: I guess a smile or something better than if they
Speaker 3: were just to replace you because of that part. Right, Well,
Speaker 3: they couldn't replace some, but.
Speaker 2: They do that now for people that can't sing.
Speaker 3: They like thinking for them. And yeah, they could have
Speaker 3: did a voiceover for you.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize I was signing onto a musical show,
Speaker 2: you know it show, but yeah, yeah, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, we're singing and and yes, I.
Speaker 6: Thought I thought that kids when they tried out to
Speaker 6: have to know how to sing and act and dance
Speaker 6: and all that, have all that talent.
Speaker 3: But they didn't back then obviously not because.
Speaker 2: Well you can't. You can't paint that way. It's not
Speaker 2: like it was it only you out of your family.
Speaker 2: Maybe Disney's that's what you're thinking, well, because if you're
Speaker 2: going to be performing and singing, dancing, that might be
Speaker 2: one of the skill sets you review. But that was
Speaker 2: in our show.
Speaker 3: But you guys, and they loved the fact that.
Speaker 2: I couldn't sing because it was real.
Speaker 3: It was real. But you guys did put on an
Speaker 3: album pretty much put it on album.
Speaker 2: We did? Did you not sing the other put me
Speaker 2: as far away from that microphone as possible?
Speaker 6: Okay, one more question. When I went to school with
Speaker 6: a Patis family lunchbox.
Speaker 2: You did?
Speaker 3: It was so geeky, like I was like, who was
Speaker 3: who was right?
Speaker 7: Who?
Speaker 3: I got it? Then I got David Cassie, and then
Speaker 3: you guys went out of the window because I had David.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right? And then you have a lunch box
Speaker 2: or a Partridge traveling lunch box.
Speaker 3: I had David.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 6: I told my dad I want David. I don't want
Speaker 6: the whole Polish family, right, like, no, had David. Like,
Speaker 6: so you jump you know what I mean, Like you
Speaker 6: have a crush here, then you move your.
Speaker 2: Cars getting older?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and but all that money that.
Speaker 2: He's even older than me, he is.
Speaker 3: Older than well now he's dead.
Speaker 2: But so you you were moving up, you were.
Speaker 6: I was going up in the world, right I became.
Speaker 6: I liked long here and but I was probavate.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Twelve then eleven twelve.
Speaker 6: Whatever, Oh my god, it seems like it would never
Speaker 6: go all that money that they make, all the merchandise everything.
Speaker 6: Did you guys get paid for that or just everybody's
Speaker 6: in your pockets and you don't get paid for that.
Speaker 2: We didn't have a merchandising deal, so I have no
Speaker 2: idea what happened to that money on that merchandising that
Speaker 2: happened early on the lunch pail stuff. We were asked
Speaker 2: to sign a merchandising deal in the early nineties, which
Speaker 2: I led actually the negotiations on because there was nothing
Speaker 2: in existence, and at that time the show had already
Speaker 2: been canceled back and you know, we're talking seventy four,
Speaker 2: we're talking now ninety two. The paramount at that time
Speaker 2: had some need to get a real merchandising deal with
Speaker 2: us in order. I don't know if you know what
Speaker 2: happened before that, Like they just collected money and didn't
Speaker 2: pay us for our likeness, right, But from ninety two
Speaker 2: on we are paid for the merchandising.
Speaker 6: And then what about syndication, Like I wasn't paid for
Speaker 6: syndication on HGTV.
Speaker 3: Because you're a cable, you know, right, So there was no.
Speaker 2: Real syndication, absolutely, but we were one of the you know,
Speaker 2: I think syndications started in sixty seven where you got
Speaker 2: paid reuse because there was no reuse whatsoever prior.
Speaker 3: Night came out and all that. And you're playing back
Speaker 3: on this.
Speaker 2: It's not that simple. Yeah, so it should have been
Speaker 2: that we got something from that. We were in syndication
Speaker 2: for the contracts reread. You're basically first year under the
Speaker 2: contract that you did during principal photography. So even if
Speaker 2: the union would have and did negotiate better deals, it
Speaker 2: didn't affect the shows that were produced in front of
Speaker 2: a camera prior to that deal going down. So our
Speaker 2: shows were all produced between sixty nine and seventy four,
Speaker 2: so we're under the contract that was in existence at
Speaker 2: that time. In that contract, at the base level, paid
Speaker 2: for reuse up to ten runs and then all rights
Speaker 2: reverted back. So the so the reason you're talking about
Speaker 2: these each episode running ten times, and it started, you know,
Speaker 2: at some level, and then it came down and yeah,
Speaker 2: but as soon as they invented cable, for twenty years,
Speaker 2: nobody was paying anything on cable. He say, it's a
Speaker 2: new industry. You're trying to figure it.
Speaker 6: Out and then got download the music and you get
Speaker 6: how many cents for the nine nine cents they paid of?
Speaker 2: What of that's different again, that's music shooting. You pay
Speaker 2: for that different again. I mean, that's a whole different contract.
Speaker 3: You got to take advance.
Speaker 2: But we do have a part of that too, because yeah,
Speaker 2: the record deal were awful, but we we ended up
Speaker 2: suing him. I can't remember the reason why, but we
Speaker 2: ultimately settled you entertainment.
Speaker 6: You've absolutely been in one of those lawsuits somewhere. Okay,
Speaker 6: so we're going to go back to Dan. Dan, tell
Speaker 6: me about this journey.
Speaker 3: What are you doing? What are we what are we
Speaker 3: raising money for?
Speaker 2: Let's tell Jan's story. Let's go back to understand why Dan.
Speaker 6: I met like a decade ago on another radio show
Speaker 6: that he was a guest on. I was a guest
Speaker 6: on I'm on TV and you're doing your things. So
Speaker 6: either I went before you or you went before me.
Speaker 7: You you went before me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then that's how I met you as I
Speaker 3: was leaving probably, Okay, got it, bring us up to speak.
Speaker 2: Are you familiar with dan story?
Speaker 3: I am vaguely vaguely.
Speaker 2: So let's let Dan tell history because it's riveting.
Speaker 5: Broke Wneck in June two thousand and nineteen years old,
Speaker 5: diving into water. Luckily, to of my friends, I wasn't
Speaker 5: getting out of the water, and ran in and pulled me.
Speaker 7: Out onto the shore.
Speaker 5: I immediately noticed I couldn't move my legs, and I
Speaker 5: started yelling, I can't move my legs. I can't move
Speaker 5: my legs. One of my friends bent down. He started
Speaker 5: to hit my legs, said Dan, can you fail that?
Speaker 5: I couldn't fail it. And right then I knew what happened,
Speaker 5: and I stilled call nine.
Speaker 3: One again went seven.
Speaker 5: When did it happen? In a lake in Westward? And
Speaker 5: that's the last thing I remember. I think my mind
Speaker 5: went into shock.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: My friend said, I never lost consciousness, so I just
Speaker 5: think I was in shock. And I was there lifted
Speaker 5: the Boston Medical Center. I spent a month in the
Speaker 5: intensive KA unit. But the first few weeks and I
Speaker 5: swallowed a lot of dirty water, so I came down
Speaker 5: with the sabandneumonia. My left lung collapsed and doctors weren't
Speaker 5: sure if I was gonna make it through the night.
Speaker 5: So the first few weeks I just told my family
Speaker 5: you know, took one day at a time. We don't
Speaker 5: know if he's gonna make it.
Speaker 3: And that was from the lake water.
Speaker 5: They ya, I was in the lake water that I swallowed. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and because I was under water for a while, so
Speaker 5: swalling a lot of water. Then after about two and
Speaker 5: a half to three weeks, though, I started to breathe
Speaker 5: a little on my own because I was on a
Speaker 5: life support system known as e ventilata. And after about
Speaker 5: two and a half in three weeks, I started breathing
Speaker 5: on my own and it's kind of weaning me off
Speaker 5: the ventilator, and realized that I was going to survive.
Speaker 5: But the thought of me ever walking again or ever
Speaker 5: having any sense of independence was out of the question.
Speaker 5: I was told I'd be a C six dependent quadriplegic,
Speaker 5: I'd never walk again, and I would be very lucky
Speaker 5: if I could ever feed myself.
Speaker 2: So six dependent quadriplegic, the definition of which is you're
Speaker 2: not going to feed yourself.
Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 5: I couldn't move legs, arms, electric wheelchair.
Speaker 3: Oh you're moving that hip pretty good right now.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: It's been a long road, you know, it's been She's
Speaker 5: been a journey four years now.
Speaker 3: So what they told you was never going to happen,
Speaker 3: you made happen.
Speaker 7: Exactly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's hard working, too nasty. Yeah, assuming that's where
Speaker 6: we're going.
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, exactly the first few years, you know, it's
Speaker 5: a little slow. My insurance companies only covering forty five minutes,
Speaker 5: three days a week of put.
Speaker 3: That side for a minute where you mentally at that point.
Speaker 5: Mentally, I was good. I was fine spiritually, you know,
Speaker 5: I really believe every.
Speaker 3: Nineteen year old boy, yep, and you're fine.
Speaker 2: This is this is what's special.
Speaker 3: It's amazing to me.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you the best thing that doctors could ever
Speaker 5: done for me besides uh keep me all Litley was
Speaker 5: telling me I'd never walking in because at that point
Speaker 5: I just had to chip my shoulder and I was
Speaker 5: gonna prove them wrong and I was gonna do anything
Speaker 5: I could do it hYP Parc.
Speaker 3: Well, that's why you had the chip on your shoulder.
Speaker 2: Whatever, there's something there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you gott understand Boston kids, how we grow up
Speaker 6: right right? So Revere not sure we have that that
Speaker 6: just that edge to us High Park, that whole those
Speaker 6: areas we just kind of get. You're not gonna hold
Speaker 6: us down like nothing's gonna hold us now. It's kind
Speaker 6: of so he was born in an area where he's
Speaker 6: gonna have that boom attitude. If I raised them somewhere else,
Speaker 6: if I raised your in Brookline knew and you might
Speaker 6: not have had that attitude.
Speaker 3: Oh that we're going to break for one moment.
Speaker 6: I'm sitting stumbling and listen a Tough of Nails on
Speaker 6: w b's news radio Tempt.
Speaker 4: Anything Right, sponsored by Pillow Windows of Boston, Next Day
Speaker 4: Molding and Kennedy Carpet.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be.
Speaker 6: And welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBC News Radio
Speaker 6: tenth thirty.
Speaker 3: And I'm sending you on here with.
Speaker 2: Dan Cummings and Christopher Knight.
Speaker 6: In here right now. Just ignore she's just a brunette.
Speaker 6: She's a blonde, but now she brunetta. Can't keep over there?
Speaker 3: Okay, go ahead? Finished?
Speaker 7: Dan, I'm sorry, Oh where were we?
Speaker 2: Well, you were saying about about hypothe because of hype.
Speaker 2: That might be the key thing, but his whole story,
Speaker 2: it takes a lot of tenacity to own that that
Speaker 2: chip to this point. I mean most people it would
Speaker 2: have worn away or.
Speaker 3: Off, and well you would take you down a bad road.
Speaker 2: Right, this is how long did it take you to
Speaker 2: first tie your shoes?
Speaker 7: Oh, she's the first tie my shoes over? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm constantly trying, and then when
Speaker 2: you finally could, it would take table forty five minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like I mean, and you have to go through
Speaker 2: this everything in your life. Just so, so I'm just
Speaker 2: giving a little impression of why it was when I
Speaker 2: first met Dan that I was so impressed in that
Speaker 2: this individual has gone through all this and he's the
Speaker 2: person he is, And it's like there's something heroic about that,
Speaker 2: something really heroic that he can be the person he
Speaker 2: is with the attitude that he has when most wouldn't
Speaker 2: I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 6: I'm a fighter a lot of things, But if you
Speaker 6: told me I'm never gonna walk again, I would have
Speaker 6: probably believed you. Yeah, I mean, so it's a different
Speaker 6: mindset how you are.
Speaker 5: So I was doing the therapy, you know, and then
Speaker 5: insurance cut me off after about the two year. Mack
Speaker 5: told me I was done progressing, you know, I was
Speaker 5: progressing slowly, but too slowly for them. I guess I
Speaker 5: did a lot of research. I found a place in
Speaker 5: southern California that worked with individuals with spinal couid injuries
Speaker 5: up to three hours a day.
Speaker 6: So after two years, insurance companies just pretty much said, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I was in the Durans and they'll only pay for
Speaker 2: so long.
Speaker 3: I love them. They love to take your money, but
Speaker 3: they hate to pay out every single one ahead.
Speaker 5: So ultimately I ended up having moved to California to
Speaker 5: a private facility out there. I heard about it in
Speaker 5: September two thousand and two.
Speaker 7: I flew out there.
Speaker 5: I had a brother who lived in Los Angeles. We
Speaker 5: talked about early in the movie business. This place was
Speaker 5: in San Diego, so I flew out to La We
Speaker 5: drove down to Project Walk in San Diego and I
Speaker 5: went in there and I was in there for not
Speaker 5: even five minutes. I saw, you know, quaterplegics and paraplegics
Speaker 5: on total gyms and on spin bikes and some taking steps,
Speaker 5: and I was like, wow, you know, my therapists wouldn't
Speaker 5: dream of doing this stuff with me. This is the
Speaker 5: program mined.
Speaker 3: And we were in Boston, by the way. Yeah, the
Speaker 3: up r end of medical yes, way above the West Coast,
Speaker 3: by the way.
Speaker 5: Okay, exactly, and then that's really what irked me. So
Speaker 5: now with that problem. At that point, I was still
Speaker 5: a dependent quater plegic, and I'm the youngest of seven.
Speaker 5: My brothers and sisters alternated days, you know, in times
Speaker 5: to help me. I had a personal care assistant that
Speaker 5: would help me Monday through Friday.
Speaker 2: But if I was going to move to.
Speaker 5: San Diego, it was going to have to be on
Speaker 5: my own because my brother couldn't move down from LA.
Speaker 5: My older brothers and sisters were married, they had their
Speaker 5: careers in Boston. So I just came home and I
Speaker 5: literally had to force myself into independence.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: The time in my sneakers was taking me forty five minutes,
Speaker 5: but three months later I was doing it in thirty minutes,
Speaker 5: and two months later I was doing it in fifteen minutes.
Speaker 5: I was now able to dress myself and button my
Speaker 5: buttons and zip of my zippers, which was hot to do,
Speaker 5: and I couldn't really move my fingers. I went and
Speaker 5: I got my license back, and I learned to drive
Speaker 5: again in eleven months. After visiting that center. August first,
Speaker 5: two thousand and three, I got on a plane. I
Speaker 5: flew out to California. I got a one bedroom apartment.
Speaker 5: I joined that program, and I spent nearly four years
Speaker 5: in that intense exercise base program. I'm talking blood, sweat,
Speaker 5: and tears. I gave it everything I had, every single day,
Speaker 5: every single rep. And after four years of that program,
Speaker 5: seven years after I was told I'd ne have a
Speaker 5: walk again, I walked out of there with my walker.
Speaker 5: And that left me with the goal. I couldn't understand.
Speaker 5: Coming from Boston, Massachusetts, the capital the medical failed, why
Speaker 5: did I have to move three thousand miles away not
Speaker 5: only to find a place to help me walk again,
Speaker 5: but a place to give me my life back and
Speaker 5: a healthy, quality, independent life. And that's when I said,
Speaker 5: I'm bringing this program home. And I came home and
Speaker 5: raised a lot of money.
Speaker 6: Okay, so that's what you're doing. You brought that from
Speaker 6: the West Coast, that idea that.
Speaker 2: That is what Journey Forward is. It's a facility for you.
Speaker 2: What do you call this exercise, Dan, It's just.
Speaker 7: An intense exercise based program.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's machines built for individuals who are having paralyzed, paralyzed,
Speaker 2: the nerve issues and spinal issues that they put them
Speaker 2: in a sort of a zero gravity state, so that
Speaker 2: as they're balanced in the machine, others can move their
Speaker 2: legs and make them walk and you know, manipulate the limbs,
Speaker 2: which is apparently having an effect on the signals they
Speaker 2: go to and from to the brain.
Speaker 5: So we're training the nervous system, you know. And we're
Speaker 5: part of a program called the Neurological Recovery Network. It's
Speaker 5: part of the Christopher and Dana Refoundation. It's headed by
Speaker 5: a lead researcher out of the University of Louisville in Kentucky,
Speaker 5: doctor Susan Hakama, and we're following their research. So over
Speaker 5: the years we've were you know, we've don't pasick teen years,
Speaker 5: we've evolved, evolved with the research, you know, with what
Speaker 5: works and what doesn't work, and you know, in giving
Speaker 5: our clients my mind, my goal is present founder Journey Forward,
Speaker 5: is to give our clients the best opportunity to overcome
Speaker 5: their situation. And that's what we do with Journey Forward.
Speaker 3: And Journey Forward.
Speaker 6: Do they have I would maybe call them mental conditioning
Speaker 6: coaches too along the way.
Speaker 5: No, we just have with pho physical therapists just exercise physiologists.
Speaker 5: Our clients do have you know, some psychological you know,
Speaker 5: psychologists whatever outside of journey.
Speaker 6: Mental conditions a little bit different. Like my style was
Speaker 6: an amateur pro golfer, right, he needed that mental conditioning
Speaker 6: to keep him the confidence right.
Speaker 3: And if there's a lot that goes evolved.
Speaker 2: That's why I was just asking, Well, that's to compete,
Speaker 2: I mean, just to live. You're talking about the have
Speaker 2: Being part of the organization gives you a level of
Speaker 2: psychological support you wouldn't have otherwise.
Speaker 5: So it does in the progress that they may they
Speaker 5: see the progress, they fail the progress the clients, I know,
Speaker 5: I know me, you know, And I was like, I
Speaker 5: still work out today, but you know, especially those early years,
Speaker 5: and I was seeing that progress. When you see the progress,
Speaker 5: you know, that keeps you going too, you know. And
Speaker 5: our clients they fail it and they see it, you know,
Speaker 5: and I have a question.
Speaker 3: I went go right back to it.
Speaker 6: But you got on a plane at nineteen twenty whatever
Speaker 6: years old, twenty two years old, tent two, with no family.
Speaker 6: Your brother was in LA but you wreent to a
Speaker 6: different part of California. Was your mom, dad, brothers and
Speaker 6: sister afraid to let you go by yourself?
Speaker 7: No. They didn't want me to go to beyond. When
Speaker 7: I so when it came to the point, you know.
Speaker 3: What, well, you were afraid to go by yourself? No.
Speaker 5: No, I wanted to walk again, like I wanted, like
Speaker 5: I never wanted anything in my life.
Speaker 7: You know. I was gonna do whatever it took to
Speaker 7: get it.
Speaker 5: And I think when I went out and I visited
Speaker 5: and I came home, Hey, I'm gonna move to California.
Speaker 7: You're like, oh, okay.
Speaker 5: But then as it started getting closer and I found
Speaker 5: an apartment and I said, all right, you know I'm
Speaker 5: gonna go get a plane ticket, They're like, whoa. I
Speaker 5: remember my one of my older brothers called me and said,
Speaker 5: Dan because my mom had him call me. You know
Speaker 5: what are you doing? You're great, You're gonna move to CA.
Speaker 5: You've never lived alone in your life, and now you're
Speaker 5: gonna move three thousand miles away as a quadriplegic in
Speaker 5: a wheelchair and you're gonna live alone. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna do it. And I said, Tom, what do
Speaker 5: you do? And call me right now? What do you
Speaker 5: think I've been planning for the last eleven months? What
Speaker 5: do you think I was joking, I'm going, and we
Speaker 5: hung up the phone, and I was going because I want.
Speaker 7: I was twenty two years old. I was an adult.
Speaker 2: That was my decision.
Speaker 5: My brother Jimmy, who was in LA, was supporting to me.
Speaker 5: You know, he was going to be there if I
Speaker 5: needed anything as an emergency situation. He was ninety minutes away.
Speaker 5: But I was doing it. I wanted it like I
Speaker 5: never wanted anything.
Speaker 2: And you can't really blame them. They were trying to
Speaker 2: protect him. Of course, they were trying to protect him
Speaker 2: from himself. But there's a lesson here for all of us.
Speaker 5: I understand, you know, looking at them, I understand what
Speaker 5: they were and understand what they were trying to do.
Speaker 7: But it was today. It was the best decision I
Speaker 7: ever made.
Speaker 5: If I didn't move out to California, I probably would
Speaker 5: still be in a wheelchair twenty four journey forward wouldn't
Speaker 5: be open.
Speaker 2: You know, you wouldn't be helping the other people.
Speaker 7: If I didn't break, I mean even break my neck.
Speaker 7: I would be honest with you.
Speaker 5: If I could go back to that day June twenty
Speaker 5: fourth and two thousand and change it, I wouldn't change
Speaker 5: a thing. I wouldn't change a thing, because if I
Speaker 5: didn't break my neck, there would be no journey forward.
Speaker 5: And where would my ninety plus clients go.
Speaker 7: You know what would they do? They would have no
Speaker 7: hope or anything.
Speaker 2: Life requires, Our society requires trailblazers.
Speaker 6: I would agree with that one thousand percent. And you're
Speaker 6: talking to me and your eyes are getting teary eyed
Speaker 6: as you're saying that, So I know the passions in there, like,
Speaker 6: don't do that.
Speaker 3: I'm a cancer.
Speaker 6: If you cry, I cry. No, seriously, I can't look
Speaker 6: at people. If you cry, I cry, then we're going
Speaker 6: to all be crying.
Speaker 2: Are you a fire sign?
Speaker 3: What are you?
Speaker 7: I am an aquarius?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm a cancer. We cry for anything.
Speaker 6: Okay, So I see the passion. I see your eyes
Speaker 6: are filling up like my eyes all right now because
Speaker 6: I can see your passion. So then you have ninety
Speaker 6: people right now that we want. How many people have
Speaker 6: gone through the program? Ninety people have gone through program.
Speaker 7: We have ninety six currently right now. We have a
Speaker 7: few more.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean we worked with over thousands over the
Speaker 5: years over COVID. Before COVID, we had well over one hundred.
Speaker 5: Then COVID happens. You know, a lot of the clients
Speaker 5: had to stop coming. We say it open, but I
Speaker 5: will be honest, I'm really surprised at the number of
Speaker 5: clients that stopped coming that we never saw her again.
Speaker 7: They never came back, never came back out a routine.
Speaker 3: Or they were scared.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know, you know what it is. Some
Speaker 7: of them were scared.
Speaker 3: Anxiety. We did think. I don't think anybody's ever felt
Speaker 3: the same after COVID.
Speaker 2: Yeah, takes a while. I call it unfolding. You know
Speaker 2: you still have creases in us.
Speaker 3: Oh. Look, we were essential. We had to go out
Speaker 3: to work every day.
Speaker 6: I had to work with three and fifty guys a
Speaker 6: day building and if I was going on a ventilated
Speaker 6: coming on alb tivex suit saw it was one hundred
Speaker 6: degrees out if I was going to faint, and we
Speaker 6: were essential, so we had to go there.
Speaker 2: We stayed.
Speaker 3: I had to go to work.
Speaker 7: I stayed open, but most four clients stayed home.
Speaker 5: We only had about maybe ten eleven of our clients
Speaker 5: that continued to come.
Speaker 2: It's important to note here, though, is insurance doesn't pay
Speaker 2: for them coming.
Speaker 6: Oh I heard that lot of clay so we have.
Speaker 5: To raise money is part of what we do have
Speaker 5: assistance program.
Speaker 3: Don't get me involved in another thing, please, I'm always
Speaker 3: doing something.
Speaker 5: I will say that one thing I am proud of
Speaker 5: is that financial assistance program.
Speaker 6: Okay, hold that I thought we could go to break.
Speaker 6: I'm sitting stumbling. Listen to a top of Nails on
Speaker 6: WBZ Radio tenth. I'm trying to keep the clock.
Speaker 4: Up, sponsored by new Brook Realty Group Boston, would Smaller
Speaker 4: Insurance World Auto Body and Tasca Drive Auto.
Speaker 2: Body just danced.
Speaker 6: And welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBZ WHOS Radio
Speaker 6: ten thirty.
Speaker 3: And I'm just sending.
Speaker 2: Smantha Dame Cummings, Christopher Knight.
Speaker 6: Okay, I'm still gonna call your Peter Brady what you
Speaker 6: like it or not. Look at you're in Boston. You're
Speaker 6: gonna deal with punks here. Okay, we're a little bit
Speaker 6: of punk. Can you explained to him that we could
Speaker 6: be punks here in Boston?
Speaker 3: Punk? You know punk is right?
Speaker 2: No, I'm thinking I'm missing something with your version of punk.
Speaker 3: I know I learned that on social audio device that
Speaker 3: the word punk they didn't know I was talking about,
Speaker 3: had a different meeting a punk means in boss like
Speaker 3: you got an h to you, you're just gonna be
Speaker 3: a punky perst, like you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Have release punk is in punky Brewster.
Speaker 3: No, we were pretty punky. That wasn't a punky person
Speaker 3: of me. Honkys like we got a little bit of
Speaker 3: varigods to us.
Speaker 6: We're gonna throw a pod shout at you as I
Speaker 6: don't know, is it papa part.
Speaker 3: I want to say another word, but I can't say
Speaker 3: the second half of it, like.
Speaker 2: A wise yeah, whise a guy?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Whyse a guy? I like that went okay, go ahead,
Speaker 3: pick up where you left off.
Speaker 5: So Journey Forward, as Chris mentioned, we're not covered by
Speaker 5: health insurance. You know, we we opened in two thousand
Speaker 5: and eight. We were just raising money to keep the
Speaker 5: doors open. And then it got to the point we
Speaker 5: were focusing our raising, our fundraising towards getting more equipment.
Speaker 5: And then one thing that always rks me about the
Speaker 5: place in California is they never had a financial assistance program.
Speaker 5: So I always knew, you know, journey Forward, we'll have
Speaker 5: a financial assistance program one day. So we got to
Speaker 5: the point where we could stop focusing on that So
Speaker 5: on January first, twenty thirteen, the Journey Forward Financial Assistance
Speaker 5: Program has been established, and we have granted out a
Speaker 5: total of five hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars to
Speaker 5: fifty six individuals who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford
Speaker 5: the program. So we're doing what we can to help
Speaker 5: these individuals. But health insurance companies really need to step
Speaker 5: up someday.
Speaker 6: And I'm sure you're fighting that we have, yeah, and
Speaker 6: you're getting aware probably nowhere to Yeah, go fight that
Speaker 6: red tape. They get too much money, that's the problem. Yeah,
Speaker 6: But what's the age group.
Speaker 5: Of our youngest is back twelve years old? Our oldest
Speaker 5: is an eighty two year old Vietnam veteran still and
Speaker 5: he comes, Yeah, he comes, he's great.
Speaker 3: See what's the percentage that you get them? Add that
Speaker 3: wheelchair walking?
Speaker 5: We've had several people actually get up and walking in
Speaker 5: a percentage, I mean to get up and walk with
Speaker 5: the walker. So I mean, we have clients that can
Speaker 5: come in right now and take steps and journey forward,
Speaker 5: walking journey forward. But when they leave Journey Forward, it's
Speaker 5: not safe for them to go walking on the streets.
Speaker 5: You know, they got to stay in their chair. But
Speaker 5: people getting up and taking steps. I could say maybe
Speaker 5: four percent five percent of actually getting up and walking again.
Speaker 7: But that's major success. You know, there's so much success.
Speaker 5: That comes before a step field, feeding yourself, learning how
Speaker 5: to drive, you know, learning how to dress yourself. Independence.
Speaker 5: I would say that probably one hundred percent of our
Speaker 5: clients have seen some sort of progress.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna make this guy, Adam Randon, reach out to Okay,
Speaker 6: never mind, Adam, are you gonna be listening to the show,
Speaker 6: because I make sure you can listen to the show,
Speaker 6: and then you're gonna reach out to Dan.
Speaker 5: Just the exercise aspect, I mean, able body people should
Speaker 5: be exercising, never mind someone who sits in a wheelchair
Speaker 5: twenty four hours a day. Because the secondary complications that
Speaker 5: come with an injury like this, they could become fatal.
Speaker 5: You know, you can get a pressure store. That that's
Speaker 5: how Chris Fherre You've died. He got a pressure store,
Speaker 5: It got infected, the affection got into his bloodstream, and
Speaker 5: he died.
Speaker 2: You know, So.
Speaker 5: Exercise has proven to decrease a lot of these secondary complications.
Speaker 2: You move to stay moving. One of the things that
Speaker 2: was said to me by Dan that caught me, that
Speaker 2: got me involved. When I met Dan, he said if
Speaker 2: I if I told you to sit in a wheelchair
Speaker 2: in five years, you wouldn't move at him, you'd never
Speaker 2: get out of it. And he's so right. It's like
Speaker 2: you have healthy person to sit down and not move
Speaker 2: is not going to move again exactly. So how'd you
Speaker 2: sit down?
Speaker 5: If I put a wheelchair next and you said, tinday,
Speaker 5: you sit down that chip of five years, you can't
Speaker 5: stand at the end of those five years, if you
Speaker 5: tried to stand, you wouldn't be able to You wouldn't.
Speaker 3: No, you're right. And what the guy that we bring
Speaker 3: in all the time, the guru work Okay, he says,
Speaker 3: when you can't sit up and in a chair, you're
Speaker 3: old and that's it, like your dead leg. So you
Speaker 3: always just keep moving. It's just got to keep looking out.
Speaker 3: I'm a building. I'm moving all the time, like literally,
Speaker 3: like go, I probably get twenty thousand fiffits in the day.
Speaker 3: Then I want to come home next. Mike Boyle, that's
Speaker 3: what it says.
Speaker 7: Mike, I have known.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know personally, but he's big in the
Speaker 2: fitness world.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 2: One of my specialists. Actually was an intern, and we can't.
Speaker 3: Get guys like that to donate some of the time.
Speaker 3: Oh I can't.
Speaker 2: Well, they're more than just physical trainers. They're they're trained
Speaker 2: in physiology. So their doctors are.
Speaker 7: Nurses, a training program, attorney boys.
Speaker 3: They have to know exactly exactly.
Speaker 5: I mean, not against Mike, but he may not even
Speaker 5: you know, we would probably have to train him.
Speaker 3: Now, getting women and men in there.
Speaker 2: To be trainers that'd be licensed.
Speaker 3: Right hard you cry right now? Or no?
Speaker 5: They were very after twenty like twenty twenty one, twenty two,
Speaker 5: after COVID, it was very hard to find, but all
Speaker 5: of a sudden two thousand and three came, and now hiring.
Speaker 2: Is back to before COVID.
Speaker 7: It's pretty easy.
Speaker 3: Well that's because there's no more free money. So I
Speaker 3: just go back to work. Let's go people, go back
Speaker 3: to work. Yeah, and Chris.
Speaker 6: You got involved in this. I gather it was his brother,
Speaker 6: you know, said hey, can you do me a favor?
Speaker 6: You set down, you talked, You met Dan, and you
Speaker 6: were intrigued by Dan, so you got behind him on this.
Speaker 6: So dear, my next question is any events coming up?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're part of the FALM with road Race. We've
Speaker 5: been a part of the FALM of road Race since
Speaker 5: twenty seventeen. So this year we have seventeen bibs that
Speaker 5: we give away through an application process, and for each bib,
Speaker 5: it's a minimum fundraiser requirement of fifteen hundred dollars. So
Speaker 5: after we're gonna start working on that. Now, trying to
Speaker 5: recruit the found road Race team and sponsors. Yeah, we
Speaker 5: usually don't get sponsors for the team if fine, you
Speaker 5: want to know why, because we do so many fundraising
Speaker 5: events a year that we have so many sponsors that
Speaker 5: when I've tried to get sponsors in the past, like
Speaker 5: we've had sponsors, Oh, I sponsored the Casino Night or
Speaker 5: I sponsored the wall, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so it never really caught on much.
Speaker 3: But you have many events to about the.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we do a casino night, we do a walk.
Speaker 5: We're a part of the Boston Marathon. We're just this
Speaker 5: past years Boston Marathon. We had twelve runners in it.
Speaker 5: There raised one hundred and fifty three thousand, the most
Speaker 5: we ever raised for the Boston Marathon. We're also part
Speaker 5: of the foulm With road Race.
Speaker 6: So that was the tie in for you in Dian
Speaker 6: And obviously there's been a respect factor here and I keep.
Speaker 2: Waiting for him to get a bigger celebrity to help
Speaker 2: him even more, and he deserving of it. But as
Speaker 2: long as I can be useful, I'll keep coming back.
Speaker 6: I'm sure you will, because that's the type of guy you.
Speaker 6: But what about Boston celebrities getting involved.
Speaker 7: That'd be great listening.
Speaker 8: You know, Tom Brady, she knows many, Mark Wahlberg, maybe
Speaker 8: pr person go to work you. They've done some shout
Speaker 8: outs for us, know, Donnie Wahlberg been afflack. They've done
Speaker 8: some shout outs for us that got us on the news,
Speaker 8: you know, promoting different events we've had.
Speaker 7: But that was about as you know involved that they've gotten.
Speaker 3: We don't like that.
Speaker 2: You got to step it up.
Speaker 3: You've got to step it up, absolutely, to step it up.
Speaker 2: There's a message in here, and it's about being, you know,
Speaker 2: the best self you can be.
Speaker 6: It's it's just so I've known so many kids along
Speaker 6: the way, I mean not so many, but more than
Speaker 6: a dozen that have jumped off of you know, off
Speaker 6: a boating thing whatever they're called, hit a dinghy, whatever
Speaker 6: that thing's called, and die right at seventeen eighteen years old,
Speaker 6: or come up from the water and be paralyzed, or
Speaker 6: riding motorcycles, dirt bikes or schemobiles.
Speaker 3: And is it called accents? And accents happen for a reason, right.
Speaker 2: All the time? You know your one accent, one way
Speaker 2: step away from being delivered the news that Dan was delivered. Correct,
Speaker 2: Your life changes what kind of person you're going to
Speaker 2: be when that happens. If it happens, I want to
Speaker 2: be Dan, that's right.
Speaker 6: I want to be the girl a guy that gets
Speaker 6: up and pushes with everything I have to do that inspiration.
Speaker 3: Is that what's called?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And not just for people who have spinal cord
Speaker 2: injuries or suffer you know, in that way, it's for
Speaker 2: all of us.
Speaker 6: And how many kids, how many people You might not
Speaker 6: know the data on this or not, but that this
Speaker 6: happens to a year here in America.
Speaker 5: Yeah, about thirteen thousand, about thirteen thousand a year in
Speaker 5: the It usually happens the biggest eighteen to twenty five
Speaker 5: year old males because it happens the most too, if
Speaker 5: you yeah, you know, boys are a little more crazier
Speaker 5: that age, more invincible. Nothing can happen to you. Of
Speaker 5: course mails eighteen to twenty five is the highest percent.
Speaker 3: You needn't realize, you guys don't grow up till sixty.
Speaker 6: I just want to tell you. So you get to sixty,
Speaker 6: your stole boyd. But go ahead, we don't know. So
Speaker 6: that's how many thirteen thousand.
Speaker 7: Thirteen thousand, yeah, annually in the United States.
Speaker 3: Yeah, between those ages.
Speaker 5: And compared to well, no, between total total. But out
Speaker 5: of that thirteen thousand the biggest percentage of eighteen to
Speaker 5: twenty five mail. But when you compare that to stroke
Speaker 5: brain injury, it's actually a low number, thirteen thousand. And
Speaker 5: that's why I feel we sometimes get lost in the
Speaker 5: medical community. There's not enough stroke and you can't there's
Speaker 5: more strokes annually than spinacleed injuries, same with brain injuries.
Speaker 3: And then they can come to you too, for sure.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: We work with all forms in paralysis through neurological conditions.
Speaker 3: Do you ever get depressed working with these people all day?
Speaker 2: Depressed? No? No, not having it's not having it would
Speaker 2: be what would lead to depress.
Speaker 5: Right, And even I was specialists. I hear my specialists,
Speaker 5: you know, you know they talk about that. They they
Speaker 5: sometimes get asked from their family members or their friends.
Speaker 5: Isn't that it depressing? In No, you're helping people, you know,
Speaker 5: it's rewarding. You're helping someone get up in take their
Speaker 5: first steps. You're helping someone you know, feed themselves for
Speaker 5: the first.
Speaker 6: Thirty Okay, hold that again. I'm sitting snuffling. It's the
Speaker 6: Toughest Nails on WVZ News Radio ten third and be
Speaker 6: right back.
Speaker 1: Cale King.
Speaker 8: Can back in the world.
Speaker 3: And look what you've done to me.
Speaker 6: And welcome back to Toughest Nails on WVZ News Radio
Speaker 6: ten thirty. If you didn't remember, that's probably the show too.
Speaker 6: Go ahead, damn take it out. Yeah, well about you
Speaker 6: and Chris.
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
Speaker 5: We are a five to one C three non profit organization.
Speaker 5: You know, we do events a year, but we can
Speaker 5: collect donations constantly, you know, three hundred and sixty five
Speaker 5: days a year. You just go on our website make
Speaker 5: a donation that can send in a check. You know,
Speaker 5: being a nonprofit, we we depend heavily on our donations
Speaker 5: and fundraising.
Speaker 3: How they make a donation.
Speaker 5: Our website is Journey dash Forward dot org. You can
Speaker 5: go right on there and make a donation or if
Speaker 5: they ever wanted to contact us and send us a check.
Speaker 5: If they don't like making a donation online, they can
Speaker 5: do that as well.
Speaker 6: Okay, well, thank you, Christopher, right you call me Chris, Chris
Speaker 6: Christopher Peter Brady. I get it all covered the end. Everybody,
Speaker 6: have a great, safe weekend, and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 6: This is Cindy Stumpo Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio
Speaker 6: ten thirty