Episode 199 – Helping People with Disabilities Find Adventure featuring Joe Stone of Teton Adaptive
Joe Stone is an athlete, motivational speaker, filmmaker, and the Director of Mission at Teton Adaptive. Teton Adaptive’s mission is to promote, support, and develop outdoor sports and recreation opportunities for people with disabilities living in and visiting the Greater Teton Area.
In this chat, Joe shares the story of how a speed flying accident in 2010 changed the course of his life. The accident left Joe an incomplete C7 quadriplegic, meaning he is paralyzed from the chest down and has impairment in both his hands. Within a year of his accident, he overcame the challenges of being in a coma and rehabilitation to become the first quadriplegic to bike the Going-to-the-Sun-Road in Glacier. Joe then shares with Stephan another big first that you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out. Joe and Stephan then discuss the incredible work that Teton Adaptive is doing in our community.
Teton Adaptive is helping local athletes and visitors with disabilities to enjoy all the outdoor activities we love to do. Find out more about Teton Adaptive at TetonAdaptiveSports.com
Watch the documentary It’s Raining, So What, the Story of Joe Stone on Vimeo
This week’s episode is sponsored in part by Teton County Solid Waste and Recycling, announcing the new commercial Curb to Compost Program for restaurants and other commercial food waste generators. More at TetonCountyWY.gov or at @RoadToZeroWaste.JH on Instagram
Support also comes from The Jackson Hole Wine Club. Curating quality wine selections delivered to you each month. Enjoy delicious wines at amazing prices. More at JacksonHoleWineClub.com
Want to be a guest on The Jackson Hole Connection? Email us at connect@thejacksonholeconnection.com. Marketing and editing support by Michael Moeri (michaelmoeri.com)
Transcript
You are tuned into the Jackson hole, connection, sharing, fascinating stories of people connected to Jackson hole.
Stephan Abrams:I am truly grateful for each of you for tuning in today and support for this podcast comes from:
Stephan Abrams:Everyone, I really enjoy reading and learning from others, which guides me to share a quote with you today.
Stephan Abrams:Today's quote is by choosing healthy, over skinny, you are choosing self love over self judgment, and that comes from Steve Maraboli.
Stephan Abrams:Remember what you see on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.
Stephan Abrams:That's not real life out there.
Stephan Abrams:Be real.
Stephan Abrams:Be true to yourself.
Stephan Abrams:Follow with what's in your heart.
Stephan Abrams:And, you know, to get to a certain level, there's always a sacrifice.
Stephan Abrams:You have to give something up to gain something can be a lot of pain and sacrifice to get to certain places.
Stephan Abrams:So if you're willing to endure the pain and to make sacrifices, the reward is.
Stephan Abrams:Well worth it.
Stephan Abrams:And today on episode number 199, I have the pleasure and honor of interviewing Joe Stone.
Stephan Abrams:And Joe is the Director of Mission with an organization here in Jackson hole, Wyoming called Teton Adaptive.
Stephan Abrams:A lot of people in town know it as Teton Adaptive Sports, but they're rebranding themselves as Teton adaptive.
Stephan Abrams:During this interview, I learned so much about people.
Stephan Abrams:I learned about myself while speaking with Joe.
Stephan Abrams:And I feel the best way for you to learn from Joe is really for you to listen to him yourself.
Stephan Abrams:You're gonna thoroughly enjoy this interview.
Stephan Abrams:While speaking with Joe, I was challenged.
Stephan Abrams:I did this to myself.
Stephan Abrams:I was challenged to think about how I view myself.
Stephan Abrams:How I view others, how I approach people and I know I have a responsibility to improve and change the words that I use.
Stephan Abrams:And, and I hope you take some of that away as well from today's conversation.
Stephan Abrams:I promise you, after you listen to Joe Stone speak, you will ask yourself, how can you change and how can you overcome your fears?
Stephan Abrams:And also, how can you help society do the right thing.
Stephan Abrams:So everyone has opportunity.
Stephan Abrams:Joe, thank you for joining me here today on the Jackson hole connection podcast.
Stephan Abrams:It's wonderful to meet you and be able to, uh, have a conversation with you.
Stephan Abrams:Oh,
Joe Stone:it's my pleasure.
Joe Stone:Thank you so much for having me on you're.
Joe Stone:You're
Stephan Abrams:welcome, Joe.
Stephan Abrams:I do love starting off by learning more about you and a little bit of your background.
Stephan Abrams:So I'm curious to learn where were you born and raised and, uh, how, how long have you lived out here in Jackson and how did you land here?
Joe Stone:Yeah, so born in North Carolina, Goldboro, North Carolina grew up a little bit there, but the majority of my upbringing came, uh, from Minnesota.
Joe Stone:So my parents had moved just out to Minneapolis when I was about 11 years old.
Joe Stone:And we had moved around quite a bit before then.
Joe Stone:And they finally said, you know what?
Joe Stone:This is a really great spot.
Joe Stone:I think we need to just post up and let our kids stay in one place for the long haul for the rest of our, at least like growing up the rest of school and all that.
Joe Stone:So grew up in Minnesota, really the really outdoorsy family, camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, that sort of thing.
Joe Stone:And just really into sports.
Joe Stone:Rollerblading was my big one, like going down handrails, doing tricks and that kind of thing.
Joe Stone:We're talking late nineties, early two thousands, when that was a lot bigger than it is now, still exists, still going strong, but it's not as popular as popular as it used to be.
Joe Stone:And, uh, but that was a huge hobby sport passion of mine that I chased until probably chased it pretty hard until I was about 22.
Joe Stone:And then like 20, you know, age 20 to 22 was starting to.
Joe Stone:Explore more of getting deeper into the woods and further away from the concrete, which, you know, as you can imagine, roll waiting is at its finest on concrete.
Joe Stone:And so sort of exploring that side of things, realizing that I wanted to find something new to chase because roll waiting comes the style of role waiting.
Joe Stone:I did comes with a lot of injuries and with those injuries, it was just starting to kinda wear on me and also recognize that, you know, I'm, I'm 22 and not really probably gonna be able to hit the, the pro level that I had always been chasing.
Joe Stone:And so it was time to kind of not totally leave role waiting, but move on to something new.
Joe Stone:And so I got into skydiving with the goal of getting into base jumping.
Joe Stone:And like I said, was spending more time getting into the woods and back country camping and that sort of thing.
Joe Stone:Long story short, that led me to Montana, where I moved to Misso Montana.
Joe Stone:And that's really where I started.
Joe Stone:That's where like, adulthood really kind of kicked in for me in terms of, you know, doing something big on my own, starting over somewhere else where I didn't really know anybody.
Joe Stone:I moved there with no job, no place to live, no real idea of what I was gonna give into once I moved out to Montana and just started exploring.
Joe Stone:And that was a really good growth moment in my life.
Joe Stone:So about, so now we're talking about 2008, 2009, and I, in that process of living in Montana, once I got settled, I ended up getting into a sport called speed flying.
Joe Stone:So speed flying, speed flying.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:Speed flying.
Joe Stone:So speed flying is a lot like parading for those who have seen it off Jacksonville mountain resort or other mountains in the area.
Joe Stone:It's just a really small wing where you go a lot faster.
Joe Stone:It's kinda like the downhill mountain biking of the paragliding world.
Joe Stone:and I ended up, you know, shortly after getting into that, made some mistakes while trying to progress and maybe trying to progress a little too quickly and doing some maneuvers in the air that ended up collapsing part of my wing and created some line twists.
Joe Stone:And that sent me spiraling, spiraling down and crashed into the side of the mountain pretty hard.
Joe Stone:So that started a whole new journey for me, which was living life with a spinal cord injury and diagnosis as an incomplete C seven quadriplegic, and trying to refi out how to live, how to take care of myself, but then more importantly, how do I get a smile back on my face?
Joe Stone:Mm.
Joe Stone:And, and so the one thing that I always knew to be very consistent in my life was the outdoors and chasing outdoor adventure and setting goals within that and trying to progress.
Joe Stone:And that, that is what I knew.
Joe Stone:And that's also what I knew to be how I kind of gauged progression in my.
Joe Stone:And so once I was able to get myself up and dressed and ready for the day, which took about seven months, I kind of quickly jumped back into trying to rediscover life in the outdoors.
Joe Stone:And through that process, I figured a lot out for myself.
Joe Stone:I did things like hand cycling to going to the sun road up in glacier national park, which was a pretty he goal for me.
Joe Stone:That was one day before the one year anniversary of my accident.
Joe Stone:And it led to that opening my mind to a whole lot of others.
Joe Stone:I tried whitewater rapping and I got into mountain biking and I got into all these other activities.
Joe Stone:And as I was relearning, all of these things that I used to do as an able bodied person, but now as a person with a disability, I ability I started recognizing that, you know, I'm figuring it out for myself and I'm stubborn enough to do so, but there's a lot of people out there that keep asking me questions.
Joe Stone:Like, how am I doing these things?
Joe Stone:How am I camping?
Joe Stone:How am I traveling?
Joe Stone:How am I finding funding for the equipment?
Joe Stone:Cause it's really expensive for people with disabilities.
Joe Stone:And that opened my mind to wanting to really do something, to help the disability community so that I could, you know, hopefully open up more doors.
Joe Stone:And in that process was learning that, you know, people with disabilities aren't really included in community activities, community events, regular organizations in town that are supporting the community.
Joe Stone:It's always people with disabilities off somewhere else, doing something somewhere else, at least in the outdoors.
Joe Stone:And so that kind of led me on the what's.
Joe Stone:Now my life's mission on supporting people with disabilities through outdoor recreation and trying to bridge the gap between people with and without disabilities through outdoor recreation and to, to wrap the whole thing up, I, in that process was working with.
Joe Stone:A mountain bike festival called the Wydaho Rendesvous, which is how the Grand Targhee, every labor day weekend, that started in 2013.
Joe Stone:And I just showed up by, I was invited there to, to show up and test out the trails for adaptive mountain biking showed up, had some support from a couple people that were working at Teton adaptive at the time.
Joe Stone:And that sort of the friendship with Teton adaptive year after year, we kept partnering on the same event, inviting more people.
Joe Stone:It actually turned into the largest gathering of adaptive mountain bikers that we're aware of, at least at the time.
Joe Stone:And so about 30 people or so show up a year, each year with a disability athletes with disabilities.
Joe Stone:And we partner with a bunch of other organizations to bring all the gear and make sure everybody has access to the trails and the equipment.
Joe Stone:And, uh, some are showing up as the pros and some are showing up as never Evers.
Joe Stone:And we kind of have a really sweet party over labor day weekend amongst this whole other festival.
Joe Stone:That's got 600 people there without disabilities, or at least without, as visible of disabil.
Joe Stone:And so that really started this partnership between myself and Teton adaptive, which led down this years of, um, you know, it was kind of funny.
Joe Stone:My, my boss would've often asked me to, you know, move to Jackson and, and, and just start officially working in Teton adaptive.
Joe Stone:But I would be, she'd like, call me in the winter and I'd be in California parading or something, and be like, it's cool.
Joe Stone:I don't need six foot snow drifts outside of my house.
Joe Stone:I'm, I'm doing right in 80 degrees, east Southern California right now.
Joe Stone:Um, but my girlfriend ended up being a PT job here.
Joe Stone:I helped her move here and the conversation just kept continuing.
Joe Stone:And now we're two years into me or almost two years to me working full time with Teton adaptive.
Joe Stone:So it's about as quick as I can tell the, the story of how I ended up here from, from birth to, to now.
Joe Stone:And, uh, I'm sure you might have a question or two in there.
Stephan Abrams:Um, a few questions.
Stephan Abrams:Yes, thank you for being such an open book and sharing your history and experience from going to you.
Stephan Abrams:I think you called it a full able bodied person or an able bodied person yeah.
Stephan Abrams:To a person with a disability.
Stephan Abrams:Yep.
Stephan Abrams:Okay.
Stephan Abrams:Um, did I get that correct?
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:I mean, able, Bodi just means you, you know, you, you don't have any disabilities.
Joe Stone:Okay.
Joe Stone:Um, and you know, then there's, you know, somebody with a disability.
Joe Stone:So, um, I'm, I'm now a person living with a disability and that was not the case before I, you know, became pretty good friends with the mountain that day and ended up wrecking my body a little bit.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Stephan Abrams:when you, I'm very curious to know when you woke up from.
Stephan Abrams:Being did you wake up from the hospital and somebody saying, Hey, this is what happened to you.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:So that was a pretty wild experience.
Joe Stone:I, I crashed into the mountain.
Joe Stone:And just to give you an example of how bad it was, I had a laceration in my liver.
Joe Stone:I had sadly bruised both in my lungs and that was probably the most life threatening part of everything in the, the very immediate moment.
Joe Stone:I had four broken ribs.
Joe Stone:I had eight broken vertebraes throughout my neck and back.
Joe Stone:I had a burst fraction burst fracture in my C seven vertebrae.
Joe Stone:So that, that vertebrae just completely exploded, which created spinal cord damage at the C seven level.
Joe Stone:So I'm diagnosed as an incomplete C seven quadriplegic, meaning I.
Joe Stone:Impairment in all four limbs.
Joe Stone:So the big misconception with quadriplegia is that you're paralyzed from the neck down mm-hmm um, there are walking quads all the way to being paralyzed from the neck down.
Joe Stone:It's just impairment in all four limbs.
Joe Stone:So I do have full function in my arms with my hands or what affected.
Joe Stone:So I, I don't have any grip in my left hand.
Joe Stone:I can open it a little bit, but I can't close this hand at all.
Joe Stone:Mm-hmm and I got very lucky and recovered quite a bit of function in my right hand.
Joe Stone:So in the incomplete part means that I have some signals that are still getting through my spinal cord.
Joe Stone:And so I have sensation everywhere.
Joe Stone:There's nowhere on my body gets completely numb, but it does feel like half numb.
Joe Stone:There's almost like a vibration or a hum below my injury line.
Joe Stone:So basically from the nipples down, there's like this tingly feeling in my body all the time, which now I'm very used to, but as you can imagine was part was, was really hard to kind of adjust to in the beginning.
Joe Stone:So it was such a life threatening situation that I was in my heart stopped twice in the hospital.
Joe Stone:I was put into an induced coma that was supposed to be for a couple of days that ended up being almost a full month in an induced coma.
Joe Stone:So when I woke up from that, you know, some of my earliest memories, like I remember one of my speed flying buddies, actually, he was a ER, nurse showed up and comes into my room.
Joe Stone:It's super early in the morning.
Joe Stone:And it, I, if I remember correctly, I think he was, you know, showed up a little bit before he started his shift to work at the same hospital that day.
Joe Stone:And, you know, I just had him like, you know, I remember I was on a ventilator.
Joe Stone:I could talk a little bit, but it was like really weak and almost nothing.
Joe Stone:And, um, I remember, you know, at, in some way, signaling to him, like to tell me what happened.
Joe Stone:And he told me that I had crashed speed flying, and I just remember being so devastated because when I, when I kind of left the, the, the idea of.
Joe Stone:Chasing being a pro as a, as a roller blade, I was letting go of a, a massive passion and goal that I'd had in my life that I'd been chasing for, you know, 10 or 12 years or something like that.
Joe Stone:So a big part of my life and letting go of that sent me into this unknown of, can I ever have that feeling again?
Joe Stone:Can I ever, you know, have passion for something again?
Joe Stone:Can I ever be that driven for something like I was with role, like wake up every day and that's all I wanna do.
Joe Stone:And that's all I think about and how can I get better?
Joe Stone:And nobody's motivating me to do it.
Joe Stone:It's just, I just had it in me and I, and so I went on this search, you know, through endurance sports, through back country, camping, to, you know, trying out a little bit of climbing and trying out a whole bunch of other things skydiving.
Joe Stone:And with the goal, like I said, getting into base jumping and.
Joe Stone:When I got into speed flying, I found it and I didn't even realize that I was gonna find it, you know, and all of a sudden I was just like, my whole life was completely full again.
Joe Stone:And I was so excited about finding that passion and that drive for life again a little bit of time to get there.
Joe Stone:But I finally found it after a couple years of searching and, and then it wasn't that long after I learned how the speed slide that I crashed.
Joe Stone:And then there, I was waking up after a month on com and being told, you know, I have this spinal cord injury and I'm most likely gonna be using a wheelchair for the rest of my life, that I had no idea what life would look like from that point forward.
Joe Stone:So at that point in my life, I thought life was over.
Joe Stone:I was gonna be living in a nursing home for the rest of my life, and I would be 100% dependent on everyone around me.
Joe Stone:So there's not a word that really describes it that I've ever found, but I mean, I was completely devastated and.
Joe Stone:And thought that I had just threw everything away and my entire life was completely over.
Joe Stone:And I, you know, had this opportunity where I rediscovered passion for life again, true passion.
Joe Stone:And I threw it away out of getting too excited and a little too connected to the, the adrenaline and the, the adventurous part of speed line guy got too consumed by that.
Joe Stone:And wasn't really focusing too much on the risk management end of things.
Joe Stone:You know, when you're, when you're 24, 25 years old, you know, especially as a guy, like not to throw a gender on it, but I was filled with ego.
Joe Stone:Nothing was gonna kill me.
Joe Stone:I had it all figured out.
Joe Stone:I wasn't listening to anybody else.
Joe Stone:I knew how.
Joe Stone:You know, make it happen.
Joe Stone:And I really looked at it as I'm gonna look back and see a video about myself being a, a really good speed flyer base jumper kind of guy, and go, I can't believe I survived the first few years of it because of all the mistakes I made, but I survived it now, here I am like, that's literally like what was going through my mind in the early days of getting into speed flying.
Joe Stone:So yeah, no fear, no risk management, none of that.
Joe Stone:So because of that, I quickly realized how poor the decisions were that I made and, you know, the, the level of guilt that I was facing while being on a ventilator and not even being able to really verbalize that was, was pretty heavy.
Joe Stone:Mm.
Joe Stone:And so it was the, it was, it was the feeling of just completely EV you know, being alive, but also mourning my death at the same time.
Stephan Abrams:And what helped you, you said earlier finding the smile back on your face to be able to put that back on your face.
Joe Stone:That was a pretty interesting transition.
Joe Stone:So that first year was super interesting to look back on because the beginning of it, yes, I was getting on my computer and I was trying to search for whatever's out there in terms of what people with disabilities or someone in a similar situation to myself is doing in the outdoors.
Joe Stone:But there wasn't a ton on the internet in 2010, like there is now, so it's come a long way in the last 12 years.
Joe Stone:And so I found a few things and I did find a video of a guy para viding.
Joe Stone:Uh, as a wheelchair user and that sort of thing.
Joe Stone:And I was, that was, it was great to see that stuff, but I, I really, I really did have a moment where I said once I started seeing some of that and I watched a, a documentary called murder ball, which is about quadriplegic rugby, awesome film.
Joe Stone:That one really changed my whole perspective on disability.
Joe Stone:Cuz I got to see all these guys on the Paralympic team in those days that were very similar level of injuries as myself, happy setting goals, chasing dreams, traveling, doing all of these things that they were super into.
Joe Stone:And so I, I kind of started to see, you know, there is, there is more to this than a nursing home being a hundred percent dependent, but, but I need to dial it back, figure out how to get myself healthy.
Joe Stone:Again, figure out how to get myself up and dressed and ready for the day.
Joe Stone:Figure out how to maybe cook a meal, feed myself, that sort of thing.
Joe Stone:Before I could really start thinking about the outdoors.
Joe Stone:So I'd set a goal originally to become independent with my basic needs.
Joe Stone:So not driving, not going to work, nothing like that, just literally get up and get dressed and ready for the day.
Joe Stone:And I wanted to do that within one year.
Joe Stone:And I had a lot of people at the hospital that were telling me that that's a really ambitious goal.
Joe Stone:It takes most people at my level of injury, two to four years to be able to get to that point.
Joe Stone:Hmm.
Joe Stone:And I remember laying there once in my hospital bed and I was thinking about being told that, and I was like, you know, two to four years to be able to put pants on and pushing manual wheelchair around and, you know, accomplish the other things that comes with just your basic cares that we all brush our teeth, you know, cook a meal, whatever, take a shower, that kind of thing.
Joe Stone:I was like, that just seems, you know, given my path and how I set goals in my life and how I was okay with failure.
Joe Stone:Because in setting goals, you have to be okay with failure as well.
Joe Stone:I was like, that seems way too long.
Joe Stone:I'm still gonna stick to doing this in one year.
Joe Stone:And if I don't do it, then at least I know I gave it everything I could to do it in a year, but if I do do it, that's amazing.
Joe Stone:And, and, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll be that much more ahead of the game.
Joe Stone:So I worked really hard.
Joe Stone:I got outta the hospital after four months, did three more months of outpatient therapy.
Joe Stone:And towards the end of that outpatient therapy, I had actually hit my basic independence.
Joe Stone:So I was only seven months into my injury.
Joe Stone:Now I still needed help for a lot of things, but I could get myself up and dressed and ready for the day.
Joe Stone:It took seven months, six months of being awake for me to actually get to that point.
Joe Stone:So that's where I sat back and I said, okay, I got five months until I met the one year mark.
Joe Stone:I just crushed that other goal.
Joe Stone:Hit it outta the park.
Joe Stone:So now can I find a smile before I start thinking about driving before I think about working again and all those other pieces to life, can I find a smile?
Joe Stone:And did a little research.
Joe Stone:Couldn't find much information on anybody with a disability ever hand cycling did going to the sun road up in glacier national park.
Joe Stone:Something I kind of always wanted to do, knew I could do as a person without a disability.
Joe Stone:But now as a quadriplegics was like, I don't know, can I, this is even possible.
Joe Stone:Can I even figure out how the, at this point I skipped a step of where I'm back in Minneapolis, close to family again.
Joe Stone:So I'm not in Montana anymore.
Joe Stone:So it was like, can I drive out there?
Joe Stone:Can I camp, can I do all those, that part of it?
Joe Stone:Can I travel?
Joe Stone:And can I bike this 50 mile road with a mountain pass in the middle that has 2,500 feet of elevation that you have to, you know, you have to climb up and over.
Joe Stone:So I spent about a month and a half or so trying to find the equipment found a nonprofit that had it similar to Teon adaptive to where I could borrow a hand cycle throughout the summer and train.
Joe Stone:By the time I got that and got solutions to keep my hand on the pedal that has no grip, you know, that sort of thing.
Joe Stone:By the time I got all that figured out, I had three months to train and I five days a week trained as hard as I could.
Joe Stone:I had set up a, a pretty good plan for progression over those three months where I was at in St.
Joe Stone:Paul, Minnesota's pretty hilly, no mountains, but plenty of, you know, you know, three to 600 foot Hills that are pretty steep to climb and cranked it out five days a week.
Joe Stone:And just learned a lot about myself.
Joe Stone:Personally, learned a lot about my physical situation.
Joe Stone:Um, learned the fact that I don't sweat anymore.
Joe Stone:So how do I control that when I'm out on hot days to keep my body cool, learn that I can feel my leg hairs blowing in the wind, you know?
Joe Stone:And that was pretty cool to be biking and all of a sudden realize my, my, I can feel my leg hairs.
Joe Stone:Um, a lot of really, really.
Joe Stone:Neat things that I learned about myself, but also some, some areas where I had to problem solve.
Joe Stone:Like I said, not being able to sweat, how do I go to the bathroom while I'm on this hand cycle?
Joe Stone:How do I deal with, how do I change a flat tire if I get one with one and a half hand?
Joe Stone:And so it was super cool, the way that big goal of the going to the sun road made me figure out all these other things.
Joe Stone:It forced me to figure out all of these other pieces on how I can be as independent as possible on the hand cycle, which trickled right into my everyday life.
Joe Stone:So to speed it up, I, I, I made it to Montana after figuring out all of these pieces and, and actually ended up biking to going to the sun road one day before the one year anniversary of my injury and took me eight and a half hours to climb Logan pass, got to the top of that.
Joe Stone:That was the big unknown and was just, my mind was just completely opened up to what life can look like with the disability.
Joe Stone:So, you know, I remember sitting there thinking to myself, okay, so Speed Flying accident.
Joe Stone:Monthlong induced coma three more months in the hospital, three more months of outpatient therapy.
Joe Stone:After that got my basic independence back then there I was with this open space of creating this new goal.
Joe Stone:surrounded it by a bunch of filming to create a documentary called It's Raining, So What organized all of that and trained and got myself going and made it to this top, Logan pass in eight and a half hours of climbing.
Joe Stone:And I was like, if I could do all of that in a year, given what I was up against, you know, I think that, I think the future is pretty bright for me at this point.
Joe Stone:Like, I feel like I can accomplish a lot if I could do that in the first year and ended up taking me about 14 hours, pretty much on the nose, 14 hours to bike the whole road.
Joe Stone:And yeah, I left that project with just a complete open mind and a new sense of curiosity with life and just started saying yes to everything.
Joe Stone:So every opportunity I got, whether it was getting on the water, getting on trails, putting tires on dirt for mountain biking, eventually getting back into paragliding and speed flying and a number of other different, really cool opportunities all the way into career shift.
Joe Stone:Public speaking now became a big part of my life.
Joe Stone:Um, helping other people with disabilities, starting a foundation at the time that I had started to bridge the gap between people with and without disabilities.
Joe Stone:You know, it just took me into this whole new direction in my life.
Joe Stone:That was totally different than what life was like before my injury, but now had so much more meaning.
Joe Stone:So finding that smile happened and that one moment at the top of Logan pass just opened up so many doors for me, you know, and now fast forward 10, 11 years from that.
Joe Stone:And you know, I'm pretty stoked on where it's all taken me in the end.
Stephan Abrams:Joe, what you accomplished in that first year is astonishing.
Stephan Abrams:And from my perspective, it's like, wow.
Stephan Abrams:Sometimes I complain that my feet hurt when I get up in the morning or they cramp up too much.
Stephan Abrams:But, um, I have nothing to complain about.
Stephan Abrams:because I, yeah, I'm not a quadriplegic.
Stephan Abrams:Um,
Joe Stone:well, you know, I will say real small I, I, I will say I'm, I'm not a huge fan of the comparison game.
Joe Stone:We all have our own issues.
Joe Stone:We all have things that we're faced against and we all have our own, whatever that worst is, and that's different for each one of us.
Joe Stone:Right.
Joe Stone:So my worst might sound worse than your worst, but it's still your worst moments.
Joe Stone:It's still your hardest moments.
Joe Stone:So I it's, it's more about, instead of saying someone else has it worst.
Joe Stone:So I have no room for complaining.
Joe Stone:It's acknowledging that something is hard and challenging for yourself and figuring out a way to move around that.
Joe Stone:And that's where the strength in overcoming adversity really starts to shine.
Joe Stone:And that's where you can build on that and build more endurance in the world of overcoming adversity.
Joe Stone:Mm-hmm
Joe Stone:. Stephan Abrams: Now you said that you created a documentary along the way.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:What's the name of it, Joe?
Joe Stone:It's the, so the title of it is It's Raining.
Joe Stone:So what, and so I ended up meeting Kevin May shortly after I did the, going to the sun road and, uh, he's a film producer and started chatting with him random meeting.
Joe Stone:We ended up having a great conversation and he ended up coming over my house the next day.
Joe Stone:And I showed him the hard drive pool.
Joe Stone:Like we had 65 hours of footage that we had gathered, um, all the way up to the going to the sun road.
Joe Stone:And so I showed him some little clips here and there of what we had.
Joe Stone:And he was pretty fired up and he was like, I'd love to help make this into a real documentary.
Joe Stone:And that turned into a three year project of not only taking that first 65 hours of footage in the first year after my injury, but then continuing to film all the way up to November of 2013, where I was the first quadriplegic to ever compete in an Ironman triathlon.
Joe Stone:Really.
Joe Stone:And so, yeah.
Joe Stone:So, um, I won't spoil no spoil or alerts.
Joe Stone:The, the film's still out there.
Joe Stone:You can find it on vio and it's, um, or if you go to the website, it'll, it'll link you to the right places.
Joe Stone:And I, yeah, I set a goal shortly after the going sun road, I met a, a friend of mine who was a paraplegic and he was doing Ironmans and I was like, wow, that I wonder if a quad's ever done that.
Joe Stone:And then I did a ton of research and found out no quad had ever even attempted it.
Joe Stone:So, um, I did find one guy who was a walking quad.
Joe Stone:So he rode a two wheel bike and he ran just like everyone else.
Joe Stone:And he swam just like everyone else.
Joe Stone:So I shouldn't say a quadriplegic had never done it, but nobody had ever done it as a wheelchair using quadriplegic, which is a pretty big difference.
Joe Stone:And so I yeah, set out, I trained for two years and worked really hard and figured out a seven solutions and ended up in Panama city, beach, Florida.
Joe Stone:And, uh, yeah, went after it then.
Joe Stone:And that was 2013.
Joe Stone:So the film follows from a little bit before my life to, you know, injury to that first year after my accident due to going to the sun road and all the way up to what it took to not only go after an Ironman, but the, the lessons I was learning throughout that process and how I was, uh, figuring out ways around some of the barriers or the perceived barriers that I was facing.
Joe Stone:And the big picture for that film.
Joe Stone:We released it in 2015, did a little bit of film festival kind of stuff with it.
Joe Stone:But the big picture was to get it in hospitals and do with it like Murderball did for me, which was give people who had newly sustained injuries like myself, an opportunity to watch it and hopefully spark some motivation within themselves to look at their new situation and the new life that they're living with a spinal cord injury or any, you know, a stroke or brain injury or anything,
Joe Stone:And we ended up it's in some hospitals, it plays on a loop at, at quite a few hospitals in the Midwest and a few other areas.
Joe Stone:And, yeah, that was our whole thing.
Joe Stone:If we can, we were like, you know, we had a, a distribution guy kind of ask us three questions and told us to put an order and, and it what's most important to to least, and.
Joe Stone:The three areas were, money further your career or change the world.
Joe Stone:And those are the three elements to a film for a documentary put 'em in order.
Joe Stone:Cause that'll let you know what to do with them from there.
Joe Stone:And so we put it in order and we said, change the world further.
Joe Stone:Our career money was the least important.
Joe Stone:And so we approached everything from, from, with, you know, that order of things and yeah, I'd look back on it now.
Joe Stone:And I think it was a total success and Kevin May totally crushed it and knocked it way outta the park on creating that film.
Joe Stone:And it was just a really neat process to go through that.
Joe Stone:Not only the filming aspect of the setting goals and then the amount of work we had to put in, in post after it all, which was, I learned a ton about visual storytelling and it was just a growth moment.
Joe Stone:Those, I mean, I think all of life is a growth moment, but those years in particular were, were really big in me trying to.
Joe Stone:Figure out, you know, what my trajectory of life was gonna look like and what I was gonna be doing career wise and how to apply what I was learning to what, you know, my passions were well, Joe,
Stephan Abrams:I, I look forward to getting on the internet and looking for, I've never seen Murderball and, and I've never seen your documentary either.
Stephan Abrams:So I certainly look forward to getting on the internet and, and seeing those and, and showing my kids as well that they can, uh, do anything they set their mind to and, and put the effort and effort into.
Stephan Abrams:Um, I, I do want to hear about what you're doing now with Teton adaptive and, and how you're making such a big impact and the community here.
Stephan Abrams:We have to take a quick break to get a word from one of our sponsors.
Stephan Abrams:I've taken so many notes right now.
Stephan Abrams:I hate to break away, but I gotta break away and we're gonna be right back.
Stephan Abrams:Joe welcome.
Stephan Abrams:Welcome back.
Stephan Abrams:you just shared with us, um, just a remarkable, journey that you've had in your, in your life.
Stephan Abrams:I, I think you're probably one of the only people I've ever met, who has shared so much of their journey of being a quadriplegic and, um, how, how that became, and now how you stay positive and you're making an impact on the world.
Stephan Abrams:You're, you're looking to change the world and, and I, I feel that you're doing that and you've been here for about two years in Jackson hole.
Stephan Abrams:You've been coming out here for quite a while now.
Stephan Abrams:but you're working at Teton adaptive
Joe Stone:and
Stephan Abrams:yeah.
Stephan Abrams:Tell me.
Stephan Abrams:is Teton adaptive making a local impact or do they have an impact in, in a greater area as well?
Joe Stone:Uh, so Teton adaptive is, is focused on Teton county.
Joe Stone:Okay.
Joe Stone:So we're supporting a lot of locals.
Joe Stone:Um, but we also live in an area that as we all know, brings a lot of people in from a lot of different parts of the world.
Joe Stone:So we're supporting a lot of people, both locally and people who are visiting the area.
Joe Stone:And, but our focus on where we create that change and where we create the level of inclusion we're working on is, you know, within Teton county and the, you know, within this valley so that we can open up more doors in national park and on the rivers and, uh, at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort,
Joe Stone:Be able to also support people with disabilities.
Joe Stone:So we want a family to be able to travel to or live in Jackson to that happens to have a person with a disability in the mix to have just as many opportunities as everyone else.
Joe Stone:So, you know, we, we, we worked for Jackson hole para guiding last summer to, to kickstart adaptive parading with them.
Joe Stone:So now they can take people with disabilities, parading with a specialized tri that Teton adaptive purchase, thanks to a lot of amazing donors.
Joe Stone:And so we help get them dialed in with that piece of gear.
Joe Stone:Whenever people call us looking for things to do, we let 'em know that's one of the options.
Joe Stone:Sometimes people buy it on that one and they sign up and they end up going parading and, and have a really magical experience with all of their friends and family, everyone doing it together.
Joe Stone:So that level of inclusion, so everyone can recreate together is what we're really after.
Joe Stone:So our three part model is with providing equipment.
Joe Stone:Providing training to the organization and then providing scholarships to those that if, if the, if the funding aspect of it is the, the barrier to get into the way for entry, then we help out there as well.
Stephan Abrams:And, and you said businesses, you want to help businesses support people with a disability.
Stephan Abrams:And you've mentioned a lot of recreation businesses, but you didn't say that initially.
Stephan Abrams:So I'm curious, where does the reach go with Teton adaptive to help businesses support people with a disability?
Joe Stone:can you clarify what you mean by that a little bit?
Joe Stone:Well,
Stephan Abrams:it, I mean, you mentioned Jackson hole, mountain resort, Teton, paragliding, getting some mountain biking.
Stephan Abrams:Those are all act activities for yeah.
Stephan Abrams:You know, you guys helping find the equipment, supplying the equipment for people to get out there, enjoy the river as well.
Stephan Abrams:You mentioned, but is Teton adaptive doing something with, um, helping businesses, support people with disabilities that are not necessarily in the activity business.
Joe Stone:so we do a little bit, like we get calls every now and again from like on an accessibility standpoint, like if a business is trying to figure out how to make it more accessible for someone to get inside their business or that sort of thing.
Joe Stone:and, and we can get some advice, but that's not our focus.
Joe Stone:Our focus is on the outdoors and our focus is on outdoor recreation.
Joe Stone:Mm-hmm so you'd be surprised how many phone calls we get on that, but there's, there's other groups in town.
Joe Stone:Um, you know, like, uh, cultivated ability is another great example of somebody doing similar work, but in a different industry, so CT ability is working on helping businesses get more comfortable and have what they need to be able to employ people with disabilities.
Joe Stone:So now we're talking about employment, right?
Joe Stone:Which is one of those areas that people with disabilities struggle with is finding a job in a place that will hire them to be involved and, and to recognize them as a productive member of society that, that deserves to have the opportunity to work at their business.
Joe Stone:So that's what cultivate ability is doing.
Joe Stone:And so we're connected with all the different groups around town that are supporting people with disabilities in one way or another.
Joe Stone:So sometimes we get calls and it's like, you know, I'm not the person for that, but you should chat with so and so over at cultivatable or a different organization.
Joe Stone:So we're all kind of, sort of working together to try to build more inclusion in the community.
Joe Stone:Our focus is on the outdoors, outdoor recreation and, and the things that you know is a large reason why most of us, I think, live in areas like Jackson is to have access to the mountains, have access to the rivers, have access to the wildlife, and we're trying to open those doors.
Joe Stone:It's a pretty interesting study.
Joe Stone:If you look.
Joe Stone:From when the Americans with disabilities act was passed.
Joe Stone:Let's just take that, for example, in 1990, you know, that, that was the biggest piece of legislation ever signed to give people with disability, civil rights.
Joe Stone:And that intent was about integration for people with disabilities.
Joe Stone:So getting people with disabilities out of nursing homes, out of institutions, into the communities, giving people that weren't necessarily in those situations, but providing them with what they need to have access.
Joe Stone:So the byproduct of that was curb cutouts that was electronic openings for doors.
Joe Stone:That was elevators that was lists on buses, that sort of thing, to create opportunities, to make it barrier free for people with disabilities, to be able to access our communities.
Joe Stone:Right.
Joe Stone:And so they did a lot with that.
Joe Stone:They did a lot with physical barriers, a lot with education, a lot with, employment.
Joe Stone:A lot of areas, but the outdoor industry, I feel like is one of the last areas to start really getting dialed in on, on how do we support people with disabilities in the outdoors?
Joe Stone:And how does the ADA apply to that?
Joe Stone:Which it absolutely does, but it hasn't been pressed too much.
Joe Stone:So we are, what we found is we make the most progression when we follow the good energy.
Joe Stone:And so instead of taking these federal laws and always shoving that down in people's throats.
Joe Stone:So if someone's saying, you know, I, I think it's too risky to have people with disabilities involved in this, whatever it might be, which we don't run into that it's pretty rare.
Joe Stone:We run into that.
Joe Stone:But instead of saying, no, you have to, the law says you have to, it's a federal law.
Joe Stone:It's kind of like, well, you're not the only one doing that, whatever that might be.
Joe Stone:So I'm gonna go to the next person down the line and they usually say, that'd be sweet.
Joe Stone:We would love to be able to support people with disabilities.
Joe Stone:So we Highfive them and we help them out.
Joe Stone:And so the, the goal in the end is to follow that good energy.
Joe Stone:And we're seeing how that can grow really quickly when we follow the good energy and just try to share it with love and happiness and not, uh, necessarily with like forcing legislation and, and laws and, you know, potential lawsuits and stuff like that down people's throats.
Joe Stone:Now, all of that's in the background and all that is a thing that could happen.
Joe Stone:So every business should be aware if you're, if you're not also opening up opportunities for people with disabilities, technically speaking, you are, you know, breaking a law, which was put into place in 1990 a federal law.
Joe Stone:But we also recognize as a small business, especially, it's very hard to get the equipment.
Joe Stone:It's very hard to have the information, and it's very hard to understand it in terms of gathering it.
Joe Stone:but it's easy to implement.
Joe Stone:And so that's where we step in and what's why we provide training.
Joe Stone:And that's why we provide the equipment.
Joe Stone:And that's why we provide scholarships to people who can't afford the activities so that we can make it an easy entry for a business to get involved with supporting people with disabilities.
Joe Stone:And we can make it easy for people with disabilities to then feel welcomed and involved in whatever that opportunity is that business provides.
Joe Stone:Well,
Stephan Abrams:well done.
Stephan Abrams:Thanks.
Stephan Abrams:Well, well done.
Stephan Abrams:Well done.
Stephan Abrams:there's so much that you have covered here today, Joe.
Stephan Abrams:I am I'm a loss for words right now.
Stephan Abrams:cause I I'm just trying to absorb everything that you've shared with me, not just what you've accomplished since your, your accident in becoming a quadriplegic, but just your perspective of how to work with people.
Stephan Abrams:And your perspective of how you're willing to work hard, take a risk, still a mitigated risk and accomplish so much.
Stephan Abrams:And when, you know, we, we were talking before the show started and I, and I said that I wanted to make sure that I don't say or ask anything that's, outta line or inappropriate.
Stephan Abrams:I want to make sure I reference everything properly.
Stephan Abrams:And you said, Hey, I'm an open book.
Stephan Abrams:You can ask me anything.
Stephan Abrams:And I, and I'll tell you basically straight up how it it's supposed to, you know, what's right.
Stephan Abrams:What's, what's appropriate.
Stephan Abrams:What's not appropriate.
Stephan Abrams:And, I feel like we can all use so much more, just honest, conversation in one where if somebody asks you a question, don't assume that they have.
Stephan Abrams:That they're being mean or, or anything they could have just messed up.
Stephan Abrams:They just might not know.
Stephan Abrams:And you just might have to help 'em along the way.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:You know, I had a really wise person once tell me that the hardest thing for humans to change is our tongue.
Joe Stone:Hmm.
Joe Stone:Whether that be the food we eat or the language we speak.
Joe Stone:And I just thought that I I've always thought that makes so much sense and it really opened my eyes to, you know, it's, it's, it's really about taking in the information, but just because you took in the information, doesn't mean you're gonna be able to completely change habits tomorrow.
Joe Stone:And that takes time.
Joe Stone:So let's use, uh, language for an example.
Joe Stone:So, um, you know, I'm not in, in terms of the way the community of people with disabilities want to be in general, referred to it's person, first language.
Joe Stone:So a person with a disability, not a disabled person.
Joe Stone:So if you were to accidentally say, you know, in, in a conversation, you start talking about disabled people, you know, that doesn't mean you just like ruined everything and you're the worst person in the world because you didn't say, oh, you know, a person with a disability.
Joe Stone:It just, it's just a, a moment of like, recognizing that you said it maybe the wrong way and trying to do better next time.
Joe Stone:Right.
Joe Stone:And so same thing with using other words like handicapped is probably the one that gets thrown up the most.
Joe Stone:To me, that's a pretty outdated way to describe people with disabil.
Joe Stone:And it's, it's tough for people to, to change that language and change, especially when you start breaking it down into ages.
Joe Stone:So if you're talking to somebody who's in their.
Joe Stone:Seventies and eighties, they grew up when handicapped was, that was the language.
Joe Stone:Right.
Joe Stone:And so changing that now is harder.
Joe Stone:Right.
Joe Stone:And so I always think context is extremely important.
Joe Stone:So if somebody is uses the word handicap and not person with a disability, well, you know, are they doing, are they saying that in a mean way or is that just what they know?
Joe Stone:You know, and if they're not saying it in any kind of hateful way, well, I'm not gonna get offended by that.
Joe Stone:You know, maybe, sometimes they correct people.
Joe Stone:Sometimes they don't, it just depends on the, the conversation that I'm having.
Joe Stone:And, um, if I feel that it's even worth it, but yeah, I mean that we can really get hung up on words.
Joe Stone:I think the safest bet is just to always use person first language, but, um, but also don't get hung up if you make a mistake, cuz that's, we're all humans and we do that and we're all guilty of it.
Joe Stone:And no matter how hard we try, we're gonna do it for the rest of our.
Joe Stone:Make mistakes.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:We're gonna make mistakes.
Joe Stone:There's no way around it.
Joe Stone:Yep.
Joe Stone:Like, I mean, uh, we're humans, we've all had we're humans and we've all had one chance to do everything.
Joe Stone:Right.
Joe Stone:And I think we've all screwed it up at some point.
Joe Stone:So we're not, none of us are getting through this without making mistakes, you know, that's
Stephan Abrams:so true.
Stephan Abrams:And I like what you said as well earlier is, you know, people that set goals are used to
Joe Stone:failure because it,
Stephan Abrams:it you're about you're bound to fail at some point, but you still gotta keep setting goals.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:I mean, failure, uh, you know, during my Ironman training, that's when I really started noticing like how valuable failure is.
Joe Stone:So it, it just, even on the days, like the days in my training, so I was training when I, when I hit the full on eight months of Ironman training, it was six days a week.
Joe Stone:For eight months, no breaks, you know?
Joe Stone:No, no saying no, no, I'm tired today.
Joe Stone:It was we're doing, unless there was an injury where I needed to rest, then, then there, it was go time.
Joe Stone:And I had some days that were just so incredibly hard because my muscles were so tired and I was so fatigue.
Joe Stone:And I just like, I was just really struggling on those days.
Joe Stone:And I realized those were the days that I was learning the most about myself.
Joe Stone:And those were also the days where the most progression was being created in my physical strength and so, and mental strength.
Joe Stone:And so I, I, I started noticing these days where maybe I didn't go as fast as I was supposed to that day.
Joe Stone:You know, maybe I didn't hit the times that I needed because I was just so fatigued.
Joe Stone:But then I saw like how, because I just went with whatever I could that day, how that built my strength for the, the next day or the day after.
Joe Stone:And I was even stronger.
Joe Stone:That, that was how, what was building me.
Joe Stone:And so those moments of, you know, those days I would consider failures.
Joe Stone:Um, and, and then all of a sudden I'd realize it grew from that day.
Joe Stone:And I learned from that that day, you know, I could look at my speed flying accident.
Joe Stone:That was a huge failure, right.
Joe Stone:I made some serious mistakes that day, a hundred percent my fault.
Joe Stone:And I smashed it in the mountain and became a quadriplegic cause of it.
Joe Stone:And now if I sat on it like that, and that's all I ever thought of, then what's that gonna do for me?
Joe Stone:But what has I learned from that day?
Joe Stone:Right.
Joe Stone:So I learned a lot about risk management from that day.
Joe Stone:And it took some time to process that and to understand it and to really be able to apply what I was learning to my life, but learned a lot about risk management.
Joe Stone:I, I learned a lot about, really what it means to have a passion for something in life.
Joe Stone:I learned a lot about how hard it is to work against a lot of adversity, but how great it feels when you.
Joe Stone:Get around that adversity and, and really start progressing in life.
Joe Stone:And so failures are inevitable.
Joe Stone:We're gonna have 'em happen.
Joe Stone:There's nothing we can do about it.
Joe Stone:In every aspect of our life.
Joe Stone:We're gonna have moments of failure.
Joe Stone:And instead of looking at it as a failure and looking at it more as a moment of growth, that's where I started really tapping into welcoming in that failure.
Joe Stone:Now, I, I don't wanna make that sound like I wanna fail every day.
Joe Stone:And that every time I fail is, is enjoyable, but it's a moment of growth.
Joe Stone:And if you analyze it that way and put a study on it like that, then you can take what you've learned and apply it to the rest of your life.
Joe Stone:And, and hopefully not make that same mistake again and continue to grow
Stephan Abrams:well.
Stephan Abrams:Well stated at my businesses, we have a one page business plan and on there it has our core values and one of our core values is it's.
Stephan Abrams:It's okay to fail and it.
Stephan Abrams:And the narrative behind that says, we all own it.
Stephan Abrams:We all grow from it.
Stephan Abrams:And we all benefit from it because yeah, well, it, it, it is inevitable.
Stephan Abrams:And I think there's part of society.
Stephan Abrams:That's like, Ooh, I can't fail or I'm not gonna talk about it, or I'm gonna hide my failure to where, when you bring it front and center, then that's when you can really learn from it and be a stronger wiser person.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:I, I mean, I couldn't agree with you more and, and I also think it's what holds a lot of people back from doing what they really wanna do.
Joe Stone:Mm-hmm , I think being fearful of failure is pretty common and we've all been there.
Joe Stone:We all, we all face that, you know, and being fearful of failure is, is a real thing.
Joe Stone:But should it stop you from living the life you wanna live?
Joe Stone:Should it stop you from progression?
Joe Stone:Should it stop you from new ideas or maybe pushing yourself physically in some way you've never done or going into a business endeavor that maybe you always wanted to, but you are afraid to do it.
Joe Stone:Cuz what if you fail it, it definitely shouldn't get in the way.
Joe Stone:And, and I think it's worth noting if you know anything worth doing is gonna have failure.
Joe Stone:You know?
Joe Stone:So if you're do, if you're doing something big enough, you're, you're, you're gonna mess up.
Joe Stone:You know?
Joe Stone:And so if you're starting a new business, I, I don't know a business owner out there that can't throw down a, a pretty lengthy list of failures.
Joe Stone:They made in the process of starting that business.
Joe Stone:But they, instead of letting that first failure be what makes them stop, they learned from it.
Joe Stone:They applied what they learned to their business and they moved forward and then they made another mistake.
Joe Stone:At some point they did the same thing and they moved forward.
Joe Stone:Eventually, you know, hopefully you're running a successful business in the end and.
Joe Stone:Guess what you're still gonna make mistakes.
Joe Stone:So it's just a part of life and we can't avoid it.
Joe Stone:And so allowing it to get into your, in your way for your own personal progression is, yeah, it, it, it's a hopefully more and more people.
Joe Stone:Well, you know, maybe they're listening to this, we'll take something from that and maybe do something that's been fearful for themself.
Joe Stone:You know,
Stephan Abrams:that that would be wonderful, Joe, and, and it's their choice.
Stephan Abrams:So it's of each individual's choice, Joe.
Stephan Abrams:I, I have so enjoyed getting to speak with you and be inspired by you and, and he learned from your, your story.
Stephan Abrams:what is a way that people could connect and, engage in conversation with you?
Joe Stone:Yeah, well, Teton adaptive is a great way to, to reach out.
Joe Stone:So, um, you can go to Teton, adaptive sports.com and you'll find plenty of information and can get ahold of us there.
Joe Stone:If you wanna get ahold of me directly, my email is Joe Teton, adaptive sports.com.
Joe Stone:Pretty easy to remember, but it's Joe@TetonAdaptiveSports.com.
Joe Stone:That's a great way.
Joe Stone:I'm happy to connect with anybody and everybody that reaches out.
Joe Stone:I, I love connecting with people and learning about other people's lives and figuring out ways that we can all work together to improve our communities.
Joe Stone:So, you know, and we're also, we're a 5 0 1 C three nonprofit, just trying to.
Joe Stone:Do some good work to bring more inclusion to the world and into our little valley of, of Jackson and the surrounding areas.
Joe Stone:So, obviously anybody out there that's able to throw us any support, whether that be your time, your expertise, um, a donation, so many, there's so many ways you can help a nonprofit like ours to help us grow.
Joe Stone:So please reach out in any way and let's start conversations and let's start building more partnerships.
Joe Stone:And I'm, I'm a huge fan of working together.
Joe Stone:I don't, I don't believe in competition, especially in the nonprofit world.
Joe Stone:We're all trying to do something to better something in some way.
Joe Stone:So the more we're working together and the more we're partnering on things and collaborating on ideas, the more progression we see in our communities.
Joe Stone:So yeah, whatever it might be, or as, as odd as it might sound or whatever, please reach out, like, let's get a conversation going.
Joe Stone:Well
Stephan Abrams:said, Joe, thank you.
Stephan Abrams:thanks again and wish you all the best and, keep growing Teton adapt.
Stephan Abrams:And for people to know your Teton adaptive sports is rebranding to Teton adaptive.
Stephan Abrams:So that's why initially we talked about Teton adaptive, but even though the website is still Teton adaptive sports.
Joe Stone:Yeah.
Joe Stone:We still got a few, few kinks to work out in the, the rebranding side of things.
Joe Stone:Mm-hmm so the sports is still attached to it and, um, but yeah, it's all the same.
Joe Stone:So if you find that one it's you're in the right place.
Joe Stone:Okay.
Joe Stone:But thank you so much for having me on and give me a, a platform in the space to be able to chat with you and be open.
Joe Stone:And, and yeah, I, I hope I hope the community can take something from this and, and run with it.
Stephan Abrams:I, I hope so too, Joe, and, and that's why I have this podcast is because.
Stephan Abrams:It gets me talking to people that are outside of who I normally see every day.
Stephan Abrams:And I get to hear more of the people who I don't know about that are making an impact in this community, but not just hear this local community, but, but how they make an impact in the rest of the world.
Stephan Abrams:And that's something that you're certainly doing.
Stephan Abrams:And I appreciate it.
Joe Stone:Thanks.
Joe Stone:You got it.
Joe Stone:Take care, Joe.
Joe Stone:Have a good day.
Joe Stone:You do the same.
Joe Stone:Appreciate everything.
Joe Stone:You're welcome.
Joe Stone:Bye.
Stephan Abrams:To learn more about Joe Stone and Teton Adaptive.
Stephan Abrams:Visit TheJacksonHoleConnection.com episode number 199.
Stephan Abrams:Thank you everybody who helps keep this podcast going, get out there and share it.
Stephan Abrams:Send me a Facebook Instagram message.
Stephan Abrams:I love hearing from you people.
Stephan Abrams:And I do love hearing from people when I'm talking and walking around town and getting to see folks of how you enjoyed an episode.
Stephan Abrams:Thank you to my wife, Laura, who always supports me and my boys Lewis and William Lewis is away at summer camp.
Stephan Abrams:Can't wait to see him.
Stephan Abrams:It's been almost 14 days since I've seen the little guy so happy for him to be away at camp Williams, enjoying his time with just Laura and I.
Stephan Abrams:And of course, Michael Moeri folks, if you are looking to start a podcast, get in touch with Michael Moeri.
Stephan Abrams:He has been with me since episode one, and this is episode 199.
Stephan Abrams:So, you know, he knows what's going on.
Stephan Abrams:Thank you everybody.
