Journey Forward

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For thirty five years, Cindy Stumpo has been a female
home builder with a passion for design, a mastery of detail,
and a commitment to her crack.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
With daughter Samantha Stumpo by her side, I.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Don't need my whole family on a date with me.
That's a good note.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's goddamn weird. See.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Stumpo Development is the only second generation female construction company
in the country.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
You're crazy, You're a wacko, You're insane. I mean, it
just doesn't end together.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Cindy and Samantha welcome guests to explore the world of construction,
real estate, development, design and more. Here.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm predictable. Every time I think I know what you want,
you switch it out. But that's what makes your houses
all us.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
They discuss anything that happens between the roof and the foundation.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Nothing is off limits. You truly do care about everybody.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
She can yell at, you can scream, but when you
get her alone, she's the best person on the planet.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Cindy Stumpo is tough as nails.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
And I'm being the studio with who Samantha, what did
you have a last name? Stumpa? Oh? Thank you? Okay,
and we have Dan Cummings and Dan.

Speaker 5 (01:03):
I am the founding president of Journey Forward, which is
a non profit organization that is dedicated to bettering the
lives of those paralysis to an intense exercise based program
and were located in Canton, Massachusetts.

Speaker 6 (01:15):
Great and our superstar that I grew up with, that
I had a crush on as a young girl.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
I'm fifty nine, how old you?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I know you'll do the math sixty six?

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Right, Okay, it's had a crush on an older boy,
Like what was I like eight?

Speaker 7 (01:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
But you were watching probably the show as a latch
key kid. No, I mean after.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
School and I waited Friday night so I had to come.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, then you were interested in a much older man,
David Joe. You were only five and I was like twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
No, I was watching it.

Speaker 6 (01:49):
It went like this, It went like eight nine and
then like that agy show at eleven o'clock.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
It was the Family Hour? Was it moved because we were
on both at eight o'clock? And I think one year
we were on at seven thirty, or if we weren't
on at seven thirty, it was Nanny and the Professor
that came on before us. But I thought we always
a eving Pottage family, and then the Party family, and then.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Then at eleven o'clock or that tent to eleven.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well, that was style Love American Style. That was from
twenty two right, was on.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
And it was great.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
So what was I Love American Style? It was a
great show.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Great A bunch came out of what.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Year sixty nine? Follow sixty nine?

Speaker 3 (02:30):
It stayed on for how long?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Five years? Sixty So through the spring I wasn't remembering
you the spring of seventy four.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
I couldn't remember four years old if I tried. So
do they we run you guys.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Oh my god, constantly. I mean it's never been it's
never been off the air somewhere. It's always playing in
other countries as well. So so, yeah, you watched it,
and and you know, probably in two hour cycles, four
episodes back to back.

Speaker 6 (02:55):
No, I watched it on I know how I watched it. It
was you guys, the Pottage family, the other I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
And then you watch it later later because kids like
they can't get enough of the same thing.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
On the major network and they played it.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Did you notice that about your daughter, of course constantly
watching the same thing when she was growing up.

Speaker 6 (03:12):
Yeah, if I had watched one more Little Mermaid, I might.
I'm sorry it was Greece. Greece a Little Mermaid. I
think we watched it a thousand times.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Okay, well that's your fault. You introduced me to it.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So you did the same thing with your mom with
the Brady Bunch.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Then I must have.

Speaker 6 (03:24):
And then I always wanted, Uh, what was the ones
you watched in the morning you went to school?

Speaker 3 (03:28):
O Yea'll leave it to beaver and father's nose. I
got that for you, mother, I got you like a
whole set.

Speaker 6 (03:33):
I don't think I was born when they came out
with that. All right, So Chris Christopher, what brings you
together tonight?

Speaker 3 (03:39):
With Dan?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I have luckily been a part of Dan's success in
his organization. Uh, since it was an idea, since it
was a fresh idea. I knew Dan's brother, who's an actor,
writer director in Los Angeles. This is now fifteen years ago,
fifteen sixteen years ago, when Dan was just putting together

(04:03):
the concept of opening a facility and as a nonprofit
and was looking to raise funds to do that, and
his brother Jimmy knew me said he needs he might
need somebody to you know, celebrity host to help him out.
And so I said, well, I tell me about Dan.
And I learned about Dan enough to know, you know,
it sounds like this is something I should be part of.

(04:25):
And then in meeting Dan.

Speaker 6 (04:26):
And hearing Dan that was supposed to go to a
year ago in Denham, a legacy place. Yes, it's been
a year ready, wow, Okay, wait time ago?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
All right, Okay, that's ago. Now it's all coming to me.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Okay now, so we've been doing it now for fifteen years.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Okay, perfect.

Speaker 6 (04:42):
So you you actually knew was brother in la and
that's how it brought you to Boston.

Speaker 8 (04:48):
That brought me to Boston.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And I've always liked Boston. I've always had friends here,
you know. I have a career in high tech back
in the eighties and nineties that brought me into Boston
for Macworld when it was here, And have a number
of very special of friends that live in the area.
So yeah, it's always been it's always been a very
special place. I was, you know, born in New York
City but raised on the West Coast. Always like Boston more.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I don't blame you, So don't we stay here?

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Easier to live.

Speaker 6 (05:13):
So let me ask you something, Chris. So, you left
acting in nineteen eighty eight to pursue a business career
in computer industry.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Right, it didn't intend to, but that's what happened.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
So what did you stay in acting longer?

Speaker 2 (05:25):
If you well, you know, see, acting is something that
you are and takes so little time. Of the work
part takes so little time compared to the pursuing part
that it leaves a lot of time to do something else.
But it's not compatible with the career path someplace else.
So when I got into high tech, you know, I started,

(05:46):
you know, not knowing anything, and then into you know,
being a manager and then working for companies that were
public and it's like you can't say, I'm not going
to be here on Tuesday, I have an interview, you know,
you have meetings and stuff like that, and so eventually
it's just like, yeah, I don't have time for it,
you know, pursuing of that anymore.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Did you if you could go back in time, would
you have been a kid actor?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yes? In my case, I wouldn't put it this way.
Let me ask the question, let me answer the question
as though you asked me. If you had a kid,
would you let them be a child actor? I would say,
you know, I know now I would say no. But
then the question you ask, yes, it was good for
me and I and people say, well, how can you

(06:26):
reconcile them too? Well, the reason is is it was
a unique experience, one that I still learned from today
how much it causes me to be who I am.
The show was was unique in the message it was
sending and in the way that it lived those values.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Inside with children and married.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, it's about getting along and that's all you know
as children. This is the reason it resonates with kids
and why I call it a filter that you know
all kids pass through. They've all watched a show at
some point if they've been introduced to it. Kids like
watching kids. You know, every child is looking for how
they fit, even in the family they were born into.

(07:12):
The more kids you have, the more struggles they have
with understanding exactly where they fit. But that's the first
community that we all live in.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
So you had your work family.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Right, But I had I had, Yes, I had the
work family and you know, these these surrogate brothers and sisters,
But I had lessons that it was actually being taught
while I was saying lines, uh inadvertently, you know that
I wasn't learning at home?

Speaker 6 (07:39):
And when you went home, did they have to ground
you like you're You're like no, but you're just Christopher
in this house, like you're not Peter Brady.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
They didn't even have to work at that.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
You didn't even have to work at that.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
No, it's just where you your place in the second morning,
you know. Yeah, So it was, uh, yeah, don't My
family wasn't at all.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
The Bradies, was it? I don't think so why I got.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
This experience of both like what that's like because it's aspirational.
My mom hated it because it was aspirational. I'm thinking,
what's wrong aspirational? I'm only thirteen years old.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Mom took you to work every day, dropped you off for.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
The studio, then drop me off, stay.

Speaker 6 (08:15):
There, stay there. Oh, she stayed with you. You have
to have a guardian, so back then parents had to
be there.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
I have a younger brother, seven years younger than me.
I'm eleven years old. He's four five years. She can't
spend it with him. He's being raised by my sister,
who's three years younger, by an eight year old.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
So, but she had to be with you in the studio.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
This is why I say to people and they say, well,
you know, my kid's cute. I want them to be
an actor. Maybe you should just see I stay away,
don't do it. You don't have any idea of what
you're introducing yourself to. The very worst that can happen
is that he's a success, because now, gla do you
do with the family?

Speaker 6 (08:53):
Okay, that's going to be It's just it's very unique
to me to think about that, right, And how were
you schooled?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Homeschool in the studio?

Speaker 2 (09:02):
No, we have studio school. And the way that our
production worked a Monday after school got out, we started
production in summer, worked all summer because those days where
there was no school over summer, you got eight hours
of work in. Got it okay, and then you had
to have three hours.

Speaker 6 (09:17):
I always have to this hold that I thought we're
going to break this the city Stubble Toughest Nails on
w BZ News Radio ten thirty.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
It'll be Right Back, sponsored by Floor and Decor, National
Lumber and Village Bank. Autumn turns to winter, and then
winter turns the.

Speaker 6 (09:42):
Spring and welcome back to the Toughest Nails on WBC
News L ten thirty and I'm City out Hey with Samantha.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
And Cummings and Christopher Night.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
You guys should know this by now. You know how,
you know what to do, Like, I don't have to
cue you guys into it. I really should I.

Speaker 6 (09:55):
Do this, this, this, this, this, we'll do the thing
of motion. One question before we go into some question is,
and I might have been that song or another song
in my memory, you lost your voice?

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Did they make you do that on purpose? Or was
your voice changing the song?

Speaker 2 (10:11):
We just heard this song.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
I wanted to get to that part, but it was.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Exactly messages in the song.

Speaker 6 (10:16):
So what happened? Would you have lougeously? Why did you
have a loungeeditius? Your voice was changing like in real
life and you couldn't keep up.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
But what's really happening? Or what was happening in my
mind as we did it?

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Both? So what was really happening? They wrote they wrote
a show about, you know, family of kids who wanted
to be singers.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
No they didn't.

Speaker 6 (10:34):
You want to get a silver plat of your parents
you couldn't afford. And I got to tell you how
the story goes.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yes, she's always right, don't you know?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Absolutely? Look at? Look At. I do a podcast with
with my brother Barry, right, So we do it so
that we can watch the episodes of the first time
in sixty years, so we understand what the audience has
been watching this whole time, because we're the last to
actually understand the.

Speaker 6 (10:54):
Show because you did like, but we watched it, so
we're concentrating.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Okay, right, so we're trying to get caught up by
bye bye watching it. So you're right, we did review
this episode, but I seem to have already forgotten what
I review. Yes, well, I know the voice was changing,
so to me, look at, I have no skills in
this area. I knew it at a very early age.
And all of a sudden, they're asking us to sing,
and I'm not able to hold my my you know,

(11:19):
I'm not I'm not able to keep up right, So
I feel like I'm like holding them down. But don't
but don't make me do this because it's just humiliating.
So now they write a show and they point out
I can't sing. That's what's going through my head. I'm
thinking they're humiliating purposely and uh, you know it was

(11:40):
a it was a I have to say it was
the bleakest week all the weeks of all the shows
I did. I watch it now and I laugh because
it is kind of fun funny. I'm you know, I'm
scarred into a laugh.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
I guess a smile or something better than if they
were just to replace you because of that part. Right, Well,
they couldn't replace some, but.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
They do that now for people that can't sing.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
They like thinking for them. And yeah, they could have
did a voiceover for you.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
I didn't realize I was signing onto a musical show,
you know it show, but yeah, yeah, and all of
a sudden, we're singing and and yes, I.

Speaker 6 (12:11):
Thought I thought that kids when they tried out to
have to know how to sing and act and dance
and all that, have all that talent.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
But they didn't back then obviously not because.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well you can't. You can't paint that way. It's not
like it was it only you out of your family.
Maybe Disney's that's what you're thinking, well, because if you're
going to be performing and singing, dancing, that might be
one of the skill sets you review. But that was
in our show.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
But you guys, and they loved the fact that.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
I couldn't sing because it was real.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
It was real. But you guys did put on an
album pretty much put it on album.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
We did? Did you not sing the other put me
as far away from that microphone as possible?

Speaker 6 (12:51):
Okay, one more question. When I went to school with
a Patis family lunchbox.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
You did?

Speaker 3 (12:56):
It was so geeky, like I was like, who was
who was right?

Speaker 7 (12:59):
Who?

Speaker 3 (13:00):
I got it? Then I got David Cassie, and then
you guys went out of the window because I had David.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Okay, all right? And then you have a lunch box
or a Partridge traveling lunch box.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
I had David.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
I told my dad I want David. I don't want
the whole Polish family, right, like, no, had David. Like,
so you jump you know what I mean, Like you
have a crush here, then you move your.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Cars getting older?

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, and but all that money that.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
He's even older than me, he is.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Older than well now he's dead.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
But so you you were moving up, you were.

Speaker 6 (13:31):
I was going up in the world, right I became.
I liked long here and but I was probavate.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
I don't know. Twelve then eleven twelve.

Speaker 6 (13:38):
Whatever, Oh my god, it seems like it would never
go all that money that they make, all the merchandise everything.
Did you guys get paid for that or just everybody's
in your pockets and you don't get paid for that.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
We didn't have a merchandising deal, so I have no
idea what happened to that money on that merchandising that
happened early on the lunch pail stuff. We were asked
to sign a merchandising deal in the early nineties, which
I led actually the negotiations on because there was nothing
in existence, and at that time the show had already

(14:10):
been canceled back and you know, we're talking seventy four,
we're talking now ninety two. The paramount at that time
had some need to get a real merchandising deal with
us in order. I don't know if you know what
happened before that, Like they just collected money and didn't
pay us for our likeness, right, But from ninety two

(14:33):
on we are paid for the merchandising.

Speaker 6 (14:35):
And then what about syndication, Like I wasn't paid for
syndication on HGTV.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Because you're a cable, you know, right, So there was no.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Real syndication, absolutely, but we were one of the you know,
I think syndications started in sixty seven where you got
paid reuse because there was no reuse whatsoever prior.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Night came out and all that. And you're playing back
on this.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
It's not that simple. Yeah, so it should have been
that we got something from that. We were in syndication
for the contracts reread. You're basically first year under the
contract that you did during principal photography. So even if
the union would have and did negotiate better deals, it

(15:15):
didn't affect the shows that were produced in front of
a camera prior to that deal going down. So our
shows were all produced between sixty nine and seventy four,
so we're under the contract that was in existence at
that time. In that contract, at the base level, paid
for reuse up to ten runs and then all rights
reverted back. So the so the reason you're talking about

(15:37):
these each episode running ten times, and it started, you know,
at some level, and then it came down and yeah,
but as soon as they invented cable, for twenty years,
nobody was paying anything on cable. He say, it's a
new industry. You're trying to figure it.

Speaker 6 (15:51):
Out and then got download the music and you get
how many cents for the nine nine cents they paid of?

Speaker 2 (15:57):
What of that's different again, that's music shooting. You pay
for that different again. I mean, that's a whole different contract.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
You got to take advance.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
But we do have a part of that too, because yeah,
the record deal were awful, but we we ended up
suing him. I can't remember the reason why, but we
ultimately settled you entertainment.

Speaker 6 (16:18):
You've absolutely been in one of those lawsuits somewhere. Okay,
so we're going to go back to Dan. Dan, tell
me about this journey.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
What are you doing? What are we what are we
raising money for?

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Let's tell Jan's story. Let's go back to understand why Dan.

Speaker 6 (16:31):
I met like a decade ago on another radio show
that he was a guest on. I was a guest
on I'm on TV and you're doing your things. So
either I went before you or you went before me.

Speaker 7 (16:42):
You you went before me.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, and then that's how I met you as I
was leaving probably, Okay, got it, bring us up to speak.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Are you familiar with dan story?

Speaker 3 (16:50):
I am vaguely vaguely.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
So let's let Dan tell history because it's riveting.

Speaker 5 (16:53):
Broke Wneck in June two thousand and nineteen years old,
diving into water. Luckily, to of my friends, I wasn't
getting out of the water, and ran in and pulled me.

Speaker 7 (17:02):
Out onto the shore.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
I immediately noticed I couldn't move my legs, and I
started yelling, I can't move my legs. I can't move
my legs. One of my friends bent down. He started
to hit my legs, said Dan, can you fail that?
I couldn't fail it. And right then I knew what happened,
and I stilled call nine.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
One again went seven.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
When did it happen? In a lake in Westward? And
that's the last thing I remember. I think my mind
went into shock.

Speaker 7 (17:23):
You know.

Speaker 5 (17:24):
My friend said, I never lost consciousness, so I just
think I was in shock. And I was there lifted
the Boston Medical Center. I spent a month in the
intensive KA unit. But the first few weeks and I
swallowed a lot of dirty water, so I came down
with the sabandneumonia. My left lung collapsed and doctors weren't
sure if I was gonna make it through the night.
So the first few weeks I just told my family
you know, took one day at a time. We don't
know if he's gonna make it.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
And that was from the lake water.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
They ya, I was in the lake water that I swallowed. Yeah,
and because I was under water for a while, so
swalling a lot of water. Then after about two and
a half to three weeks, though, I started to breathe
a little on my own because I was on a
life support system known as e ventilata. And after about
two and a half in three weeks, I started breathing
on my own and it's kind of weaning me off
the ventilator, and realized that I was going to survive.
But the thought of me ever walking again or ever

(18:05):
having any sense of independence was out of the question.
I was told I'd be a C six dependent quadriplegic,
I'd never walk again, and I would be very lucky
if I could ever feed myself.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
So six dependent quadriplegic, the definition of which is you're
not going to feed yourself.

Speaker 7 (18:19):
Right, Yeah, I was.

Speaker 5 (18:20):
I couldn't move legs, arms, electric wheelchair.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Oh you're moving that hip pretty good right now.

Speaker 7 (18:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
It's been a long road, you know, it's been She's
been a journey four years now.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
So what they told you was never going to happen,
you made happen.

Speaker 7 (18:32):
Exactly.

Speaker 6 (18:32):
Yeah, it's hard working, too nasty. Yeah, assuming that's where
we're going.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
Right, Yeah, exactly the first few years, you know, it's
a little slow. My insurance companies only covering forty five minutes,
three days a week of put.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
That side for a minute where you mentally at that point.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
Mentally, I was good. I was fine spiritually, you know,
I really believe every.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Nineteen year old boy, yep, and you're fine.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
This is this is what's special.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
It's amazing to me.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
I'll tell you the best thing that doctors could ever
done for me besides uh keep me all Litley was
telling me I'd never walking in because at that point
I just had to chip my shoulder and I was
gonna prove them wrong and I was gonna do anything
I could do it hYP Parc.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Well, that's why you had the chip on your shoulder.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Whatever, there's something there.

Speaker 6 (19:13):
Yeah, you gott understand Boston kids, how we grow up
right right? So Revere not sure we have that that
just that edge to us High Park, that whole those
areas we just kind of get. You're not gonna hold
us down like nothing's gonna hold us now. It's kind
of so he was born in an area where he's
gonna have that boom attitude. If I raised them somewhere else,
if I raised your in Brookline knew and you might

(19:34):
not have had that attitude.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Oh that we're going to break for one moment.

Speaker 6 (19:37):
I'm sitting stumbling and listen a Tough of Nails on
w b's news radio Tempt.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
Anything Right, sponsored by Pillow Windows of Boston, Next Day
Molding and Kennedy Carpet.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
He's gonna be.

Speaker 6 (20:01):
And welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBC News Radio
tenth thirty.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
And I'm sending you on here with.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Dan Cummings and Christopher Knight.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
In here right now. Just ignore she's just a brunette.
She's a blonde, but now she brunetta. Can't keep over there?

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Okay, go ahead? Finished?

Speaker 7 (20:16):
Dan, I'm sorry, Oh where were we?

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, you were saying about about hypothe because of hype.
That might be the key thing, but his whole story,
it takes a lot of tenacity to own that that
chip to this point. I mean most people it would
have worn away or.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Off, and well you would take you down a bad road.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Right, this is how long did it take you to
first tie your shoes?

Speaker 7 (20:44):
Oh, she's the first tie my shoes over? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm constantly trying, and then when
you finally could, it would take table forty five minutes. Yeah,
it's like I mean, and you have to go through
this everything in your life. Just so, so I'm just
giving a little impression of why it was when I
first met Dan that I was so impressed in that
this individual has gone through all this and he's the
person he is, And it's like there's something heroic about that,

(21:11):
something really heroic that he can be the person he
is with the attitude that he has when most wouldn't
I wouldn't.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Listen.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
I'm a fighter a lot of things, But if you
told me I'm never gonna walk again, I would have
probably believed you. Yeah, I mean, so it's a different
mindset how you are.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
So I was doing the therapy, you know, and then
insurance cut me off after about the two year. Mack
told me I was done progressing, you know, I was
progressing slowly, but too slowly for them. I guess I
did a lot of research. I found a place in
southern California that worked with individuals with spinal couid injuries
up to three hours a day.

Speaker 6 (21:44):
So after two years, insurance companies just pretty much said, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
I was in the Durans and they'll only pay for
so long.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
I love them. They love to take your money, but
they hate to pay out every single one ahead.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
So ultimately I ended up having moved to California to
a private facility out there. I heard about it in
September two thousand and two.

Speaker 7 (22:01):
I flew out there.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
I had a brother who lived in Los Angeles. We
talked about early in the movie business. This place was
in San Diego, so I flew out to La We
drove down to Project Walk in San Diego and I
went in there and I was in there for not
even five minutes. I saw, you know, quaterplegics and paraplegics
on total gyms and on spin bikes and some taking steps,
and I was like, wow, you know, my therapists wouldn't
dream of doing this stuff with me. This is the

(22:24):
program mined.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
And we were in Boston, by the way. Yeah, the
up r end of medical yes, way above the West Coast,
by the way.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
Okay, exactly, and then that's really what irked me. So
now with that problem. At that point, I was still
a dependent quater plegic, and I'm the youngest of seven.
My brothers and sisters alternated days, you know, in times
to help me. I had a personal care assistant that
would help me Monday through Friday.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
But if I was going to move to.

Speaker 5 (22:47):
San Diego, it was going to have to be on
my own because my brother couldn't move down from LA.
My older brothers and sisters were married, they had their
careers in Boston. So I just came home and I
literally had to force myself into independence.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
You know.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
The time in my sneakers was taking me forty five minutes,
but three months later I was doing it in thirty minutes,
and two months later I was doing it in fifteen minutes.
I was now able to dress myself and button my
buttons and zip of my zippers, which was hot to do,
and I couldn't really move my fingers. I went and
I got my license back, and I learned to drive
again in eleven months. After visiting that center. August first,
two thousand and three, I got on a plane. I

(23:21):
flew out to California. I got a one bedroom apartment.
I joined that program, and I spent nearly four years
in that intense exercise base program. I'm talking blood, sweat,
and tears. I gave it everything I had, every single day,
every single rep. And after four years of that program,
seven years after I was told I'd ne have a
walk again, I walked out of there with my walker.
And that left me with the goal. I couldn't understand.

(23:43):
Coming from Boston, Massachusetts, the capital the medical failed, why
did I have to move three thousand miles away not
only to find a place to help me walk again,
but a place to give me my life back and
a healthy, quality, independent life. And that's when I said,
I'm bringing this program home. And I came home and
raised a lot of money.

Speaker 6 (23:59):
Okay, so that's what you're doing. You brought that from
the West Coast, that idea that.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
That is what Journey Forward is. It's a facility for you.
What do you call this exercise, Dan, It's just.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
An intense exercise based program.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah. So there's machines built for individuals who are having paralyzed, paralyzed,
the nerve issues and spinal issues that they put them
in a sort of a zero gravity state, so that
as they're balanced in the machine, others can move their
legs and make them walk and you know, manipulate the limbs,

(24:36):
which is apparently having an effect on the signals they
go to and from to the brain.

Speaker 5 (24:42):
So we're training the nervous system, you know. And we're
part of a program called the Neurological Recovery Network. It's
part of the Christopher and Dana Refoundation. It's headed by
a lead researcher out of the University of Louisville in Kentucky,
doctor Susan Hakama, and we're following their research. So over
the years we've were you know, we've don't pasick teen years,
we've evolved, evolved with the research, you know, with what

(25:03):
works and what doesn't work, and you know, in giving
our clients my mind, my goal is present founder Journey Forward,
is to give our clients the best opportunity to overcome
their situation. And that's what we do with Journey Forward.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
And Journey Forward.

Speaker 6 (25:16):
Do they have I would maybe call them mental conditioning
coaches too along the way.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
No, we just have with pho physical therapists just exercise physiologists.
Our clients do have you know, some psychological you know,
psychologists whatever outside of journey.

Speaker 6 (25:33):
Mental conditions a little bit different. Like my style was
an amateur pro golfer, right, he needed that mental conditioning
to keep him the confidence right.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
And if there's a lot that goes evolved.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
That's why I was just asking, Well, that's to compete,
I mean, just to live. You're talking about the have
Being part of the organization gives you a level of
psychological support you wouldn't have otherwise.

Speaker 5 (25:56):
So it does in the progress that they may they
see the progress, they fail the progress the clients, I know,
I know me, you know, And I was like, I
still work out today, but you know, especially those early years,
and I was seeing that progress. When you see the progress,
you know, that keeps you going too, you know. And
our clients they fail it and they see it, you know,
and I have a question.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
I went go right back to it.

Speaker 6 (26:13):
But you got on a plane at nineteen twenty whatever
years old, twenty two years old, tent two, with no family.
Your brother was in LA but you wreent to a
different part of California. Was your mom, dad, brothers and
sister afraid to let you go by yourself?

Speaker 7 (26:25):
No. They didn't want me to go to beyond. When
I so when it came to the point, you know.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
What, well, you were afraid to go by yourself? No.

Speaker 5 (26:31):
No, I wanted to walk again, like I wanted, like
I never wanted anything in my life.

Speaker 7 (26:35):
You know. I was gonna do whatever it took to
get it.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
And I think when I went out and I visited
and I came home, Hey, I'm gonna move to California.

Speaker 7 (26:40):
You're like, oh, okay.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
But then as it started getting closer and I found
an apartment and I said, all right, you know I'm
gonna go get a plane ticket, They're like, whoa. I
remember my one of my older brothers called me and said,
Dan because my mom had him call me. You know
what are you doing? You're great, You're gonna move to CA.
You've never lived alone in your life, and now you're
gonna move three thousand miles away as a quadriplegic in
a wheelchair and you're gonna live alone. I was like, yeah,
I'm gonna do it. And I said, Tom, what do

(27:02):
you do? And call me right now? What do you
think I've been planning for the last eleven months? What
do you think I was joking, I'm going, and we
hung up the phone, and I was going because I want.

Speaker 7 (27:11):
I was twenty two years old. I was an adult.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
That was my decision.

Speaker 5 (27:14):
My brother Jimmy, who was in LA, was supporting to me.
You know, he was going to be there if I
needed anything as an emergency situation. He was ninety minutes away.
But I was doing it. I wanted it like I
never wanted anything.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
And you can't really blame them. They were trying to
protect him. Of course, they were trying to protect him
from himself. But there's a lesson here for all of us.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
I understand, you know, looking at them, I understand what
they were and understand what they were trying to do.

Speaker 7 (27:36):
But it was today. It was the best decision I
ever made.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
If I didn't move out to California, I probably would
still be in a wheelchair twenty four journey forward wouldn't
be open.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
You know, you wouldn't be helping the other people.

Speaker 7 (27:47):
If I didn't break, I mean even break my neck.
I would be honest with you.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
If I could go back to that day June twenty
fourth and two thousand and change it, I wouldn't change
a thing. I wouldn't change a thing, because if I
didn't break my neck, there would be no journey forward.
And where would my ninety plus clients go.

Speaker 7 (28:02):
You know what would they do? They would have no
hope or anything.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
Life requires, Our society requires trailblazers.

Speaker 6 (28:09):
I would agree with that one thousand percent. And you're
talking to me and your eyes are getting teary eyed
as you're saying that, So I know the passions in there, like,
don't do that.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
I'm a cancer.

Speaker 6 (28:18):
If you cry, I cry. No, seriously, I can't look
at people. If you cry, I cry, then we're going
to all be crying.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Are you a fire sign?

Speaker 3 (28:24):
What are you?

Speaker 7 (28:24):
I am an aquarius?

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Well, I'm a cancer. We cry for anything.

Speaker 6 (28:27):
Okay, So I see the passion. I see your eyes
are filling up like my eyes all right now because
I can see your passion. So then you have ninety
people right now that we want. How many people have
gone through the program? Ninety people have gone through program.

Speaker 7 (28:40):
We have ninety six currently right now. We have a
few more.

Speaker 5 (28:43):
Yeah, I mean we worked with over thousands over the
years over COVID. Before COVID, we had well over one hundred.
Then COVID happens. You know, a lot of the clients
had to stop coming. We say it open, but I
will be honest, I'm really surprised at the number of
clients that stopped coming that we never saw her again.

Speaker 7 (29:00):
They never came back, never came back out a routine.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Or they were scared.

Speaker 7 (29:05):
Yeah, I don't know, you know what it is. Some
of them were scared.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Anxiety. We did think. I don't think anybody's ever felt
the same after COVID.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah, takes a while. I call it unfolding. You know
you still have creases in us.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
Oh. Look, we were essential. We had to go out
to work every day.

Speaker 6 (29:19):
I had to work with three and fifty guys a
day building and if I was going on a ventilated
coming on alb tivex suit saw it was one hundred
degrees out if I was going to faint, and we
were essential, so we had to go there.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
We stayed.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
I had to go to work.

Speaker 7 (29:31):
I stayed open, but most four clients stayed home.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
We only had about maybe ten eleven of our clients
that continued to come.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
It's important to note here, though, is insurance doesn't pay
for them coming.

Speaker 6 (29:42):
Oh I heard that lot of clay so we have.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
To raise money is part of what we do have
assistance program.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Don't get me involved in another thing, please, I'm always
doing something.

Speaker 5 (29:52):
I will say that one thing I am proud of
is that financial assistance program.

Speaker 6 (29:56):
Okay, hold that I thought we could go to break.
I'm sitting stumbling. Listen to a top of Nails on
WBZ Radio tenth. I'm trying to keep the clock.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
Up, sponsored by new Brook Realty Group Boston, would Smaller
Insurance World Auto Body and Tasca Drive Auto.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Body just danced.

Speaker 6 (30:20):
And welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBZ WHOS Radio
ten thirty.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
And I'm just sending.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Smantha Dame Cummings, Christopher Knight.

Speaker 6 (30:27):
Okay, I'm still gonna call your Peter Brady what you
like it or not. Look at you're in Boston. You're
gonna deal with punks here. Okay, we're a little bit
of punk. Can you explained to him that we could
be punks here in Boston?

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Punk? You know punk is right?

Speaker 2 (30:40):
No, I'm thinking I'm missing something with your version of punk.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
I know I learned that on social audio device that
the word punk they didn't know I was talking about,
had a different meeting a punk means in boss like
you got an h to you, you're just gonna be
a punky perst, like you're gonna.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Have release punk is in punky Brewster.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
No, we were pretty punky. That wasn't a punky person
of me. Honkys like we got a little bit of
varigods to us.

Speaker 6 (31:05):
We're gonna throw a pod shout at you as I
don't know, is it papa part.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
I want to say another word, but I can't say
the second half of it, like.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
A wise yeah, whise a guy?

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah? Whyse a guy? I like that went okay, go ahead,
pick up where you left off.

Speaker 5 (31:17):
So Journey Forward, as Chris mentioned, we're not covered by
health insurance. You know, we we opened in two thousand
and eight. We were just raising money to keep the
doors open. And then it got to the point we
were focusing our raising, our fundraising towards getting more equipment.
And then one thing that always rks me about the
place in California is they never had a financial assistance program.
So I always knew, you know, journey Forward, we'll have
a financial assistance program one day. So we got to

(31:39):
the point where we could stop focusing on that So
on January first, twenty thirteen, the Journey Forward Financial Assistance
Program has been established, and we have granted out a
total of five hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars to
fifty six individuals who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford
the program. So we're doing what we can to help
these individuals. But health insurance companies really need to step

(32:00):
up someday.

Speaker 6 (32:01):
And I'm sure you're fighting that we have, yeah, and
you're getting aware probably nowhere to Yeah, go fight that
red tape. They get too much money, that's the problem. Yeah,
But what's the age group.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
Of our youngest is back twelve years old? Our oldest
is an eighty two year old Vietnam veteran still and
he comes, Yeah, he comes, he's great.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
See what's the percentage that you get them? Add that
wheelchair walking?

Speaker 5 (32:26):
We've had several people actually get up and walking in
a percentage, I mean to get up and walk with
the walker. So I mean, we have clients that can
come in right now and take steps and journey forward,
walking journey forward. But when they leave Journey Forward, it's
not safe for them to go walking on the streets.
You know, they got to stay in their chair. But

(32:48):
people getting up and taking steps. I could say maybe
four percent five percent of actually getting up and walking again.

Speaker 7 (32:55):
But that's major success. You know, there's so much success.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
That comes before a step field, feeding yourself, learning how
to drive, you know, learning how to dress yourself. Independence.
I would say that probably one hundred percent of our
clients have seen some sort of progress.

Speaker 6 (33:11):
I'm gonna make this guy, Adam Randon, reach out to Okay,
never mind, Adam, are you gonna be listening to the show,
because I make sure you can listen to the show,
and then you're gonna reach out to Dan.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Just the exercise aspect, I mean, able body people should
be exercising, never mind someone who sits in a wheelchair
twenty four hours a day. Because the secondary complications that
come with an injury like this, they could become fatal.
You know, you can get a pressure store. That that's
how Chris Fherre You've died. He got a pressure store,
It got infected, the affection got into his bloodstream, and
he died.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
You know, So.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
Exercise has proven to decrease a lot of these secondary complications.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
You move to stay moving. One of the things that
was said to me by Dan that caught me, that
got me involved. When I met Dan, he said if
I if I told you to sit in a wheelchair
in five years, you wouldn't move at him, you'd never
get out of it. And he's so right. It's like
you have healthy person to sit down and not move
is not going to move again exactly. So how'd you

(34:05):
sit down?

Speaker 5 (34:05):
If I put a wheelchair next and you said, tinday,
you sit down that chip of five years, you can't
stand at the end of those five years, if you
tried to stand, you wouldn't be able to You wouldn't.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
No, you're right. And what the guy that we bring
in all the time, the guru work Okay, he says,
when you can't sit up and in a chair, you're
old and that's it, like your dead leg. So you
always just keep moving. It's just got to keep looking out.
I'm a building. I'm moving all the time, like literally,
like go, I probably get twenty thousand fiffits in the day.
Then I want to come home next. Mike Boyle, that's

(34:34):
what it says.

Speaker 7 (34:35):
Mike, I have known.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, I don't know personally, but he's big in the
fitness world.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
One of my specialists. Actually was an intern, and we can't.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Get guys like that to donate some of the time.
Oh I can't.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Well, they're more than just physical trainers. They're they're trained
in physiology. So their doctors are.

Speaker 7 (34:52):
Nurses, a training program, attorney boys.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
They have to know exactly exactly.

Speaker 5 (34:57):
I mean, not against Mike, but he may not even
you know, we would probably have to train him.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
Now, getting women and men in there.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
To be trainers that'd be licensed.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Right hard you cry right now? Or no?

Speaker 5 (35:10):
They were very after twenty like twenty twenty one, twenty two,
after COVID, it was very hard to find, but all
of a sudden two thousand and three came, and now hiring.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Is back to before COVID.

Speaker 7 (35:21):
It's pretty easy.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Well that's because there's no more free money. So I
just go back to work. Let's go people, go back
to work. Yeah, and Chris.

Speaker 6 (35:28):
You got involved in this. I gather it was his brother,
you know, said hey, can you do me a favor?
You set down, you talked, You met Dan, and you
were intrigued by Dan, so you got behind him on this.
So dear, my next question is any events coming up?

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (35:43):
Yeah, we're part of the FALM with road Race. We've
been a part of the FALM of road Race since
twenty seventeen. So this year we have seventeen bibs that
we give away through an application process, and for each bib,
it's a minimum fundraiser requirement of fifteen hundred dollars. So
after we're gonna start working on that. Now, trying to
recruit the found road Race team and sponsors. Yeah, we

(36:04):
usually don't get sponsors for the team if fine, you
want to know why, because we do so many fundraising
events a year that we have so many sponsors that
when I've tried to get sponsors in the past, like
we've had sponsors, Oh, I sponsored the Casino Night or
I sponsored the wall, you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (36:21):
Yeah, so it never really caught on much.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
But you have many events to about the.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
Yeah, we do a casino night, we do a walk.
We're a part of the Boston Marathon. We're just this
past years Boston Marathon. We had twelve runners in it.
There raised one hundred and fifty three thousand, the most
we ever raised for the Boston Marathon. We're also part
of the foulm With road Race.

Speaker 6 (36:39):
So that was the tie in for you in Dian
And obviously there's been a respect factor here and I keep.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Waiting for him to get a bigger celebrity to help
him even more, and he deserving of it. But as
long as I can be useful, I'll keep coming back.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
I'm sure you will, because that's the type of guy you.
But what about Boston celebrities getting involved.

Speaker 7 (36:59):
That'd be great listening.

Speaker 8 (37:00):
You know, Tom Brady, she knows many, Mark Wahlberg, maybe
pr person go to work you. They've done some shout
outs for us, know, Donnie Wahlberg been afflack. They've done
some shout outs for us that got us on the news,
you know, promoting different events we've had.

Speaker 7 (37:15):
But that was about as you know involved that they've gotten.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
We don't like that.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
You got to step it up.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
You've got to step it up, absolutely, to step it up.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
There's a message in here, and it's about being, you know,
the best self you can be.

Speaker 6 (37:29):
It's it's just so I've known so many kids along
the way, I mean not so many, but more than
a dozen that have jumped off of you know, off
a boating thing whatever they're called, hit a dinghy, whatever
that thing's called, and die right at seventeen eighteen years old,
or come up from the water and be paralyzed, or

(37:51):
riding motorcycles, dirt bikes or schemobiles.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
And is it called accents? And accents happen for a reason, right.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
All the time? You know your one accent, one way
step away from being delivered the news that Dan was delivered. Correct,
Your life changes what kind of person you're going to
be when that happens. If it happens, I want to
be Dan, that's right.

Speaker 6 (38:13):
I want to be the girl a guy that gets
up and pushes with everything I have to do that inspiration.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Is that what's called?

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah? And not just for people who have spinal cord
injuries or suffer you know, in that way, it's for
all of us.

Speaker 6 (38:29):
And how many kids, how many people You might not
know the data on this or not, but that this
happens to a year here in America.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
Yeah, about thirteen thousand, about thirteen thousand a year in
the It usually happens the biggest eighteen to twenty five
year old males because it happens the most too, if
you yeah, you know, boys are a little more crazier
that age, more invincible. Nothing can happen to you. Of
course mails eighteen to twenty five is the highest percent.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
You needn't realize, you guys don't grow up till sixty.

Speaker 6 (38:58):
I just want to tell you. So you get to sixty,
your stole boyd. But go ahead, we don't know. So
that's how many thirteen thousand.

Speaker 7 (39:05):
Thirteen thousand, yeah, annually in the United States.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Yeah, between those ages.

Speaker 5 (39:09):
And compared to well, no, between total total. But out
of that thirteen thousand the biggest percentage of eighteen to
twenty five mail. But when you compare that to stroke
brain injury, it's actually a low number, thirteen thousand. And
that's why I feel we sometimes get lost in the
medical community. There's not enough stroke and you can't there's

(39:30):
more strokes annually than spinacleed injuries, same with brain injuries.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
And then they can come to you too, for sure.

Speaker 7 (39:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (39:36):
We work with all forms in paralysis through neurological conditions.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Do you ever get depressed working with these people all day?

Speaker 2 (39:42):
Depressed? No? No, not having it's not having it would
be what would lead to depress.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
Right, And even I was specialists. I hear my specialists,
you know, you know they talk about that. They they
sometimes get asked from their family members or their friends.
Isn't that it depressing? In No, you're helping people, you know,
it's rewarding. You're helping someone get up in take their
first steps. You're helping someone you know, feed themselves for
the first.

Speaker 6 (40:03):
Thirty Okay, hold that again. I'm sitting snuffling. It's the
Toughest Nails on WVZ News Radio ten third and be
right back.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Cale King.

Speaker 8 (40:25):
Can back in the world.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
And look what you've done to me.

Speaker 6 (40:37):
And welcome back to Toughest Nails on WVZ News Radio
ten thirty. If you didn't remember, that's probably the show too.
Go ahead, damn take it out. Yeah, well about you
and Chris.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Go ahead.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
We are a five to one C three non profit organization.
You know, we do events a year, but we can
collect donations constantly, you know, three hundred and sixty five
days a year. You just go on our website make
a donation that can send in a check. You know,
being a nonprofit, we we depend heavily on our donations
and fundraising.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
How they make a donation.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
Our website is Journey dash Forward dot org. You can
go right on there and make a donation or if
they ever wanted to contact us and send us a check.
If they don't like making a donation online, they can
do that as well.

Speaker 6 (41:16):
Okay, well, thank you, Christopher, right you call me Chris, Chris
Christopher Peter Brady. I get it all covered the end. Everybody,
have a great, safe weekend, and we'll see you next week.
This is Cindy Stumpo Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio
ten thirty