In late 2022 after spending two seasons coaching Challenger Baseball, Lincoln was introduced to James Churchman (a Hollywood Stuntman) who started and runs Flying Hero Club. The Flying Hero Club uses specialized stunt equipment used in movies to transform children and adults with exceptionalities and illnesses into superheroes for the day. Lincoln met with Jim and agreed on a plan to have a Flying Hero Club event in Grand Junction on August 26, 2023. In preparation for the event, Lincoln Folkers, Jeramy Casteel and others created a new not-for-profit organization that paved the way for The Flying Hero Club to come and fly over 100 adults and children in a two-day event. This event gave participants with intellectual and physical challenges a chance to experience the exhilaration and freedom of flight through the use of professional stunt flight rigs.
Along the way, Lincoln met a young man named Tanner and became friends with him and his family. Through conversations with Tanner's dad, Jeramy, Lincoln discovered without regular therapy, Tanner would suffer setbacks when his physical therapy routine became inconsistent or was interrupted. Lincoln saw how Tanner’s dad struggled to make sure Tanner had a regular therapy routine but because of the high demand for therapy appointments, often had challenges finding available therapy or accessibility to the treatments Tanner needed. The concept for the mobile therapy gyms was born.
Lincoln Folkers is a long-time local and former firefighter & paramedic with GJFD, former member of senior management aboard a Mercy Ship vessel and serial entrepreneur; passionate about helping people with what Adaptive Heroes refers to as their individual EXCEPTIONALITIES!
EXCEPTIONALITIES is defined by Adaptive Heroes this way:
Instead of using the common language of intellectual or developmental disabilities, we see individuals as EXCEPTIONAL. We see individuals as EXCEPTIONAL. Uplifting human beings elevates them and avoids diminishing the value of those with different levels of ability.
Adaptive Heroes’ Mission is: To deliver kind, innovative, fun - physical, occupational and speech therapies to individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities through a mobile platform that provides easier access to those living in the rural and frontier areas in western Colorado.
This program challenges the status quo by looking at the way services are delivered to those with varying abilities and designing something that works better. In this program that means therapy that can come to them in areas where these services are not readily available locally.
The team at Adaptive Heroes is working tirelessly to raise funds and organize the construction of a mobile therapy clinic or gym built in a bus with special adaptations that include accessibility on and off the bus as well as trained professionals to provide the care and panning to help those in need of ongoing therapy maintain quality and consistency in treatment to improve steady functionality. This pursuit also includes the necessary certifications with the state of Colorado to provide this care in complete compliance with professional standards and legal regulations.
In all populations throughout the USA, 6.8% of individuals have some need for these services and with the mobile service buses being developed, these services will become much more readily available for rural and frontier residents in need of kind, caring and FUN support for their individual progress and maintenance.
Many who have a pause in receiving these therapies find that they go backward in their daily functionality, yet when consistency is restored, so is functionality.
Currently, the first of these buses to be outfitted as a mobile therapy clinic is nearing completion with a plan for additional vehicles and a broader reach throughout western Colorado over time.
The VISION of this program is to help those needing these services in rural areas to have happy, healthy, functional lives wherever they live.
Many other resources are being identified for funding and program collaboration.
Through partnerships with higher education in the region, and institutions that train therapists, Adaptive Heroes is expanding accessibility and improving medical capacities throughout rural and frontier communities in western Colorado. Long term, this concept is envisioned to reach far beyond the local needs and benefit countless others throughout many other states.
Mission: To deliver kind, innovative, fun - physical, occupational and speech therapies to individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities through a mobile platform that provides easier access to those living in the rural and frontier areas in western Colorado.
We see individuals as EXCEPTIONAL. Uplifting human beings elevates them and avoids diminishing the value of those with different levels of ability.
Lincoln Folkers is a long time local and former firefighter, paramedic, with GJFD, former member of management of a Mercy Ship vessel and serial entrepreneur. Passionate about helping people with what Adaptive Heroes refers to as their individual EXCEPTIONALITIES!
