Latest / Nonprofit411 Podcast / Podcastathon Edition | Empowering Amputees: Building Community with Cat Bigley

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Podcastathon Edition | Empowering Amputees: Building Community with Cat Bigley · Nonprofit411 Podcast

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Welcome to the Nonprofit411 podcast, the podcast where we speak with nonprofit professionals and experts to uncover strategies, share insights, and tackle the challenges you face in fundraising and sustainability.
I'm Sarah Barton, your fundraising growth partner and the founder of Nonprofit411.
My mission is to help you develop tailored strategies and support you as you implement them, ensuring your nonprofit thrives.
Let's dive into today's episode and learn from the experiences and expertise of those who have been in your shoes.
Hello, and welcome to the special edition of Nonprofit 411.
Today I am participating in a worldwide podcast a thon where we are interviewing a non profit or charity of our choice to be able to highlight some of the amazing work that is happening around the world.
And I am so excited to introduce my guest, Cat Bigley.
From The Amputee Center.
Welcome.
Hello.
Thank you.
Do you want me to redo that with your full name? I have aliases.
I don't mind.
All right.
Awesome.
Well, I am so excited to have you here and I am so excited for our listeners to learn about the amputee center and the amazing work that you do.
But before we get started, I'd like to ask every guest, my favorite question, which is what is your favorite hobby? And I know you have a lot of them.
Oh gosh, my favorite hobby right now, I'm going to say hiking.
Hiking.
Hiking.
Oh, fun.
It's kind of wet for hiking, isn't it? It, yep, yep.
And, and so I think that's where it's, it's every day.
I'm looking at the weather and looking at my, what clothes I pack to when I come to the office, that maybe I could sneak out and go get in, you know, a little nature.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yes.
I feel like in the middle of winter, we all need a little bit more nature because we're all inside too much.
And I always feel better.
I always feel better.
Feel better.
I like we did a hike.
The day two days after Christmas with my my kids, because we had all got new hiking shoes for Christmas.
Right.
And it was raining.
It was a day that you would never, ever, ever leave.
And we had such a great time.
It was so great.
So I know it's, it's a, there's a hard boundary of not going.
And then once I do, I never regret it.
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
So, well, thank you for that encouragement to get outside and do more.
I know that walking on dirt helps my back and my body in ways that nothing else does.
So we don't, you know, we walk on concrete a lot of times, but when I walk on dirt, it's different and just the simple act of getting on dirt, even if it's just the front yard, my body like relaxes and it feels so much better.
Yes, very, very much so.
Yes.
Okay.
So now we get to get into the exciting part, which is for you to talk about, introduce yourself and then tell us about The Amputee Center.
And I have to say before you go, I learned about the amputee center probably four years ago.
I do have a brother in law who is an amputee, but when I learned, I learned so much from just being introduced to the center and then to find out all the stuff that you do and that you are really a unique model worldwide, I think is pretty awesome.
So.
Go ahead, share with us a little bit about yourself and about The Amputee Center.
Okay, so, oh, so my name is Catherine Bigley and I'm the executive director of The Amputee Center.
We are located in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
So we we are the only Nonprofit that does what we do in the way that we do it.
There are organizations out there.
And if there's somebody listening that says we're kind of like you, please reach out because we have been asking people like, is there anything else happening? Cause we can't find it.
And so what I mean by that is that we offer a space for people dealing with limb loss and limb difference that they can come to for.
Mental, emotional, and physical support.
So it's all about creating community and adding to every element of a challenge that could come up for them.
So I, the MPT center is actually only about four years old.
So you must've heard about it right when they were getting up in a row.
And I came on board about three years ago and in my career, everything that I've done up to this point is.
Is this job.
So, physical fitness, mental, emotional support working in mental health.
And then also just creating community, which is, which is a lot of what I've done in my hometown.
So the idea for us is that when.
Someone comes into the amputee center that they feel welcome to ask any questions and find support however we can do it and that we are armed with all of the information that if we don't have the service we have a network of people all over the country that we can reach out to to say, I don't, I don't know the answer to that, but we can definitely try to figure it out for you.
So.
When we like for people to come in in person.
This is, you know, part of the creating the community.
But we have started doing more things virtually.
So virtual emotional support turning on you know, zoom during one of our mixers so that you can hear the speaker that we have, you know, things like that to try to build that community.
And then if somebody is having questions about amputation, Okay.
We do have several peer support specialists in our center that they can text or call and ask questions.
So, so that part is growing for our outreach just because, you know, we can only do so much here, here in Parkersburg.
Yeah, I think, you know, I didn't realize until I actually started interacting with The Amputee Center.
I guess I had never really considered that when a person has to go through an amputation, a lot of times there's not a lot of preparation for that, right? It's, it's not usually a really.
Long period of preparation time perhaps for amputations.
And so there's just really not a lot of locations to go to get those questions answered.
And so that's really something unique that you guys offer.
Can you tell us a little bit just about that? And you know, that pre amputation support kind of the challenges and the support, because again, I didn't really, because I've not experienced it myself, I didn't realize any.
You know that there was a deficiency in this area.
Absolutely.
That is where I had never really dealt with amputees until I came into this job.
So we have, there's three things that, you know, we think about here is that in a community right now we might have somebody who is an amputee that's underserved.
We hear about them from like the water meter guy or the mailman.
Because they see them when they stop by.
So we have people who are already amputees that are underserved.
We have someone who might lose their limb in an accident.
And so it comes across social media.
You hear it in the scanner, you see it in the newspaper, you get the phone call of the prayer line in your church.
And then we have.
someone who knows they're going to get an amputation so that we, you know, it could be cancer.
It could be other health related issues like being diabetic.
And so they do know that the amputation is coming.
So those are three, three things of how we can be of service to somebody immediately the moment we find out and they find out.
Right.
Really, the fourth one is, is if we hear about a child born with limb difference.
And so that, that also is not something we've dealt a lot with, but it is something we have to recognize that could happen.
So, so in our pre amputation consultations they're very non formal.
The word consultation makes it sound like it's formal.
It's very non formal.
It's just very caring and very much like let You ask anything like what are your fears? What are your questions? You know, that they don't understand that the especially a lower extremity, the swelling takes a while to go down.
You will not be walking for a while, you will have to wait for this line to go down.
Prosthetic fittings take a while and hopefully you find a great prosthetist that can work with you and say what feels right and doesn't feel right.
There's a lot of products out there with liners and adding a sock, changing this.
Well, this sweats too much.
Well, this is now getting a sword.
There's a lot of that conversation.
And then upper extremities.
The same thing like how can I adapt my house like if I know what's going to happen.
What can I prepare for.
So we, we do have.
We recently had a consultation come in, and they are preparing for amputation, and their health provider.
You have to come talk to these people.
Awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
And so that was that was good to know that who and what we are and what we're doing to serve the community has now we've planted the seed in.
Medical professionals to say, I want you to come into this informed.
And then we also have been a part of the, not, not the doctor saying you're going to have it done, come talk, but we've been a part of the decision making process for people where they come in and they talk and they go, I'm still kind of deciding, you know, do I carry on with life with this, you know, issue and take a chance, or do I just have the amputation and adjust to life with a prosthetic? You know, none of that stuff.
stuff is, is a given or, or you just have to say, this is what we can tell you.
This is what your experience might be.
But at the end of the day, what's important is that sense of community.
And they know they have someone to talk to because what we hear a lot is people will say, I have had 42 surgeries.
I've been going through this for seven years and I've never talked to another amputee.
And so as their caregivers who come in, their mom, their spouse, their siblings, their children, they can only do so much caregiving.
They can't do the empathy of, I, they don't understand.
And and we do hear a lot of pain in their voices and we do see a lot of tears because of that.
And so if we can ease that in any way then we're doing our job.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I, I just, I appreciate that so much because like I said, I hadn't really thought about there being a lack of that, but in your own you know, your own community, you may know one or two amputees.
I actually, I said my brother in law, but actually my uncle is a double amputee also.
And, you know, so I happen to have two in my community, but I don't know of other amputees that I could even introduce them to, you know, to be able to help them say, you know, be able to network and grow that.
So I think community is vital and it is all ages.
I have actually had the privilege of being able to attend.
Some events at the amputee center and attend events where we were both attending an outside event and you serve, you have even younger kids who are involved in your programming, right? Yes.
Yes.
And, and the leading cause for children amputations is farm equipment, Lauren lawnmowers and farm equipment.
So that is something that, you know, we We really want to get that information out there and there are some other kids that we haven't even been able to serve yet.
But the idea that That equipment is really, really scary, but it's also really fun and attractive.
And, you know, kids want to help and, you know, teach them how to help and those types of things.
And then we do have a young lady that lost below the knee lost her foot under a riding lawn mower when she was nine years old.
And she ended up the surgeons took the leg up to right below the knee for the fitting of the prosthetic.
But she came to us in a situation where she was really depressed didn't leave her room.
And recently her grandma clarified, it's like she had a tent inside the room.
So it's not that she didn't leave her room.
She didn't leave the tent inside the room.
And we have now in, in my office, she comes in she helps with creating marketing for our social media.
She helps get people fitted in the equipment.
She'll go grab somebody's walker or wheelchair and make sure that they're getting out to the car safely.
She has gone to the state and national level.
To speak about people with disabilities and why funding is needed.
And we have taken trips to conferences and presented and spoken to inspire others.
And it's just really Interesting, you know, to see how people look at her, but also that immediately because of the way that she carries herself that she makes it to the point that I literally don't even use the word disabled, right, like I, like, I had to say the day I work with disabled.
And I was like, I don't even see it that way, you know, so, so she has been definitely a beautiful success story of what the center can do, and, and she has said herself that if she hadn't come in here.
She's looked around this town and said, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be a good person, you know, I would be in a worse place and I wouldn't have the path that saw any type of success in my life.
So it's big, it's big stuff.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, I love that.
So, tell me about the various resources that you provide so you've kind of talked about some of the resources but can you tell me what that looks and feels like.
From the amputees perspective that of what you have available in your like in your facility and for your participants.
So our founding members.
Mark and Nancy Miller had been doing a social event once a month.
And so that was very important to them was the social because they would have their amputees that were patients and they would sit in the waiting room and never talk to each other.
And so that social element was the core to the beginning of the center.
So what we do is once a week from one to four p.
m.
on Thursdays.
They can come in and just have social.
So it's, it's a support group, but it's not that image that we see in movies of sitting around in a circle and everybody sharing their story.
It's really like, how are you? How are the grandkids? You know, when's your next prosthetic leg being fitted? Do you want some popcorn? Let's do a puzzle.
You know, so the social is also very joyous.
And when they, Have a new amputee walk in during that time.
It's a little overwhelming because they're like, Hey, there's a new person and they welcome them in with open arms.
We then do an amputee only fitness time.
And so that's really important to give them an opportunity to do fitness.
You know, a lot of fitness certifications and I've worked with thousands of people over the years.
And so being able to offer adaptive fitness in a safe, supportive community is really important to me.
And so, so that's the idea of like saying, okay, you know, you don't have to worry about anybody else in the room.
You know, you're all amputees.
Let's try something that might be new, fun and silly, you know, to the physical fitness.
And then the once a month mixers in the evening.
And that's social it ties in, we do stuff with the holidays.
And then we also bring in speakers to share information to help with their health.
So we have the mental, emotional and physical, and then we are starting a program to help with nutrition.
So, you know, giving them ideas, especially if they're diabetic of, of different ways to To be nourishing themselves and stay, stay away from the idea that they might have more amputations because that, that does happen.
So, so that's really how it works.
And then we also, for, for others listening to this that have nonprofits or charities, how we fund it partially is through community classes.
So I have a staff of instructors that can do adaptive fitness, but we also offer classes to anyone in the community.
So someone can come in and pay for a yoga class or a bungee fitness class or boxing or line dancing and their money that they pay goes directly to keeping everything for amputees at no cost.
So that's something very unique of how we Get our funding and it also has helped us when we are writing grants to show that we, you know, have that way of sustainability through the programming that we offer.
The other beautiful thing that happens is in those community classes, some of the amputees start coming to those classes.
And they feel super empowered because they know, they know what's happening next.
They know how to gear people up.
They're looking at someone who feels insecure in their body and they say, I did it and I'm missing my legs.
You can do it too.
You know? So it turns into this really Strange sense of humor, but, but it's, it's, I'm always just like, okay, I guess, I guess this is what we're doing now, but it, it gives people an opportunity to get inspired by who's in the classroom with them.
Yeah.
Yeah, I love that.
And I do think, you know, it, it emphasizes that we are more alike than we are different.
Yes.
Yeah.
So I love that.
Well, can you tell our listeners how they can find out more about the amputee center and how they can get ahold of you if they do know of similar work around the world? Because we would love to be able to expand our networks.
Yeah.
So we do have our website is The Amputee Center.
com.
So that's pretty simple.
Right.
And then our, our email is amputee center at Gmail.
You can find me at cat bigly at The Amputee Center.
com and all of our other social medias are listed.
Really the website is the best place to go.
But everything rings into my phone.
So, so.
If any other executive directors are listening, you know how that goes so, so it really, you know, weekends, evenings, mornings, I usually see what's coming in and try to help anybody out that I can or at least say we're going to get back to you.
So, yeah, so on our website we have opportunities to make donations, put in questions.
We, we've tried to feature on our social media as much inspirational pictures and videos as possible.
But we're always open to ideas and we you know, definitely are at a point where when we talk to people in other regions that are sad when they find out that we're just here and they can't come.
That it's very much asking now like what else is possible, right? How do we, how do we make this possible in every community so that people can come together and this is something that amputation can affect anyone.
And we're only one phone call away from being, being told that we know somebody who has an amputation.
So, you know, that idea that why do I need to know this or I'll just plant this seed in my head.
Maybe I'll remember it later.
The projections of the number of amputations that are going to happen just in West Virginia, just in our state in the next five years for, for health related reasons, how that, you know, the predictors of health.
We have a lot of people coming to us.
And so we, this is our time to prepare.
One of the services I forgot to mention is we have a physical therapist on staff.
Oh, awesome.
Yeah, I just saw that.
I don't like that.
So that's something to consider to that.
We're not just, I mean, I make sure our instructors are equipped to do adaptive.
But we also are able to offer free physical therapy twice a week to anyone who comes in for the open physical therapy time, and it's.
So instrumental in their progress, because even with the best insurance, you might only get 10 physical therapy sessions.
And so this is even to the point where we'll walk out to the parking lot and help you figure out how to get in and out of your car.
Yeah.
Oh, that's awesome.
I think too, because you have so many amputees who come through the center.
That the physical therapy is so unique and really targeted for individuals who have amputations in ways that, you know, some communities have no access to because they, they just have had limited exposure.
You know, their physical therapies have had very limited exposure.
And so you guys offer so many such a variety of opportunities within that realm because You are so focused on amputees.
It is a big issue that we're, we're working on is that when someone does get physical therapy prescribed, it's very much that the physical therapist might say I've never, I don't know what to do.
I've never worked with an amputee and the reaching, you know, if that.
If that's something we do have our physical therapist and we also do know there's another group in Richmond, Virginia that we've worked with that has a really great YouTube channel.
So we can, so that's what I'm saying.
We've got like.
Resources.
So if, if we can't help or if we don't know for sure, we can say, Hey, if you want this in your town, call your local library, get a free room ask your local restaurant to donate some snacks and coffee and put flyers and all the doctor's offices and just start there.
Just start with how do we meet up and talk about it.
I do recommend getting a mental health professional to key in, you know, just, just because.
When we come together and we share these stories of loss, like we have to be prepared to hold space for people.
But but as far as like building that community goes, it takes that step.
It takes the, the couple of people saying, okay, let's get together and, and maybe find support or have a space to ask the questions without judgment or somebody just to see empathize and say, Hey, I, I know I've.
Stood up and forgot my leg was gone and I fell too.
I mean, that's just, that happens.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that those are great tips and that anyone can create this magic, but you are definitely, I think a special creator of magic for amputees in this region, the amputee center is can.
So I always end with what is one piece of advice that you think every nonprofit should hear.
Today that you can offer.
I talk about limiting beliefs in my personal work, but it is so true in nonprofits.
And so it doesn't matter the age of your nonprofit because I worked for a nonprofit before that was over 100 years old and this one's four years old.
So, I think it's really important as a board and if you're listening to this to go back to your board and just say The Amputee Center.
And just What else is possible? and What else is possible?, you know, and then when you hit a wall say.
What else is possible that we haven't considered yet and be open to what would we do if we didn't have money as a limitation and make that list and be open to believing and supporting each other and say, well, maybe we come to that not by money, but by barter.
Maybe we come to that by donation.
Maybe we come to that by showing up at the next you know, community farmers market and just.
Talk to the community.
So that's where it's like, there's so many spaces that we go into our limiting beliefs of, oh, we've only ever done it this way, or we could only ever do it this way.
And so I think the best thing is like, Whatever your next meeting of board members or, or contributors or volunteers, you know, hit them with the question.
What else is possible? I love it.
I love it.
I'm going to, I'm going to write that one down and I'm going to share that one a lot because I love that I always say money is only one resource.
Right.
And it's not the greatest resource right I think there's so many other great resources, and you really.
Highlight some of these amazing resources because you have community.
So thank you so much for joining us today.
Well, thanks for all you do.
We appreciate you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I'm so excited to share you with the world and I hope that it reaches the ears of someone who needs to hear it today.
And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in this week.
podcast.
It's at the podcast, a thon.
com.
And listen to some other amazing nonprofit and charities from around the world too, to see what they're offering.
Thank you, Kat.
You're welcome.
Bye.
That's a wrap for today's episode of Nonprofit411.
I hope our discussion with nonprofit professionals and experts gave you actionable ideas to take your fundraising efforts to the next level.
At Nonprofit411, I partner with leaders like you to develop strategies and guide you through implementation.
Visit nonprofit411.
org to learn more and let's take the first step together.
See you next time.
Bye.