← A Place of Yes | A Grief Podcast 
A Place of Yes | A Grief Podcast
The Importance of Adaptive Equipment for Medically Complex Individuals
00:08:42
Our Trip to Rifton Equipment
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to A Place of Yes. A podcast about how I moved through my darkest hour. And for me, that was in channeling my grief into good.
- [00:11]
B
Welcome to the show. So this episode is very exciting and it's a little bit different and it's a sneak peek really to an episode coming out in season two. We are going to take you on this journey of a place that's really special to me and really special to Jake's Help From Heaven. The company's called Rifton and Jake's Help From Heaven has worked with Riftan pretty much since the beginning. Since 2011, we have developed a really strong relationship. They give us really great discounts. Their product, I always feel like I'm like trying to sell it and I swear I'm not. But they're just. Their product is just really great and they come from this place of really understanding and believing that special needs individuals deserve the equipment that can give them the absolute best quality of life. And. And they believe wholeheartedly that they need it as soon as possible. They don't need it in eight weeks, 12 weeks, eight months. Like some other companies make people wait. We do a lot of Jake's Help From Heaven with an adaptive trike. They have this absolutely beautiful trike that they do. It comes in, I believe, extra small and goes all the way up to a really large size for like an adult. They also do something called a gait trainer, which for those of you who don't know, a gait trainer is similar to a walker, but it's for those individuals who just need assisted walking. And there's different accessories and things that you can do to make it more supportive. But it's a device that looks like a walker that allows people to take steps and to move independently. A lot of Rifton equipment is based with this concept of how can we get people to be as independent as possible. They also have something called a tram, and this is a motorized device. We have purchased them at Jake's Help From Heaven for a adults. But it allows the person to be sort of lifted up and to moved around. And honestly, the equipment, this is why I love them so much. They make this equipment. So for instance, these bikes, they look cool. They look like what a child would want to ride a bike. We have had stories where our families actually say things like, you know, so and so's classmate will come up to them and say, I want your bike. Can we trade bikes? And this will be a typical child wanting to ride the Rifton bike. They have bright colors, they have beautiful colors. They're kind of made to the specifications of what that child wants. Like if it's a little girl that wants everything to be pink or blue, it doesn't matter. Like they just will do that. All that to say we went on this adventure where myself, Brian, my husband and co founder of Jake's Help from Heaven, Julie Johnson, a board member and Christine, producer of A Place of yes, we loaded up the car, we brought equipment and we went to Rifton. And I have to tell you, we were all, I think, a little nervous because we weren't entirely sure what it was gonna be like. It was amazing. We had a tour. We saw how they make. Cause that's the thing too. They make everything on site and they make it to order. So when we place an order, everybody, the community gets together and builds this bike. And if I were to say, hey, we're getting this bike and so and so's birthday is in 10 days, do you think you can make that happen? They told us they make that happen. They care. It was just so cool. It was just so neat to see this community that really works together to help others and works together so that people they don't even know can have a better life. We were lucky enough to talk to the president and general manager, Joe Keeterling, and he is gonna be a guest in season two. The things we talk about, we talk about grief. We talk about channeling grief for good. We talked about why we do what we do. And he shared some personal stories that honestly were very touching. We all left that day and we were almost giddy because like I said, we were kind of nervous. We didn't know what it was gonna be like. And we all left and we were not quiet the entire ride back to Saratoga. And it was. It was almost a two hour ride. We just were talking about what we saw and what they do and who they are and just how great they are. So one of the things that was so striking to me and sometimes, you know, in life, you know things like people tell you things, but you have a hard time visualizing it. So I knew just from working with Thrifton, from hearing them, from. From them telling me that they do everything on site, that they make everything, that they take the orders, they process the orders, they make the equipment, they ship the equipment. But I don't think I truly believed it because it's so hard in today's world to really grasp that. But when we toured the factory and we saw like where the welding happened and we saw where the assembly happened and we saw where the shipping happened and we saw all of the different stations and all of the different jobs for the community to do. It became so real. And I think that's what actually became almost magical because it's almost unfathomable in today's world. In today's world where sometimes you can't even find toilet paper on the shelves. Like things don't make sense. They have figured out at Rifton how to make it make sense and how to get it done. Like how to keep their eye on the prize. I feel like saying, like they just, their goal is to provide this equipment for those who need it. They don't lose sight of that. If you are a parent with a child with disability and you're listening to this and you have not already been in touch with Rifton, I highly recommend that you reach out to them. They ship all over the world. If you're looking for anything to assist mobility, whether it's adaptive trike, whether it's a gait trainer, whether they have toileting chairs, they have different sizes, you know, for a toddler, for like a preschool setting. They also have chairs that go up and down so you could have a chair at the height of the table so that your child can eat dinner with the rest of your family. But then if you're over on the couch watching tv, you can lower it so that they're still at the same height. Their stuff is so thoughtful and so well made. So I highly recommend you check them out. They're rifting equipment dot com. They're sold through most adaptive equipment vendors, but I definitely recommend checking them out. You definitely will not want to miss this episode. It's going to be great. Season two launches December 11th. Stay tuned.
- [06:28]
A
Thank you for listening to A Place of Yes. Please follow us wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really like this episode, please share it with a friend. Anybody who might benefit from listening to.
- [06:38]
B
This, it would make a world of.
- [06:40]
A
Difference if we could just reach more people and share the work that we do and the stories we want to tell. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Leave us a thumbs up or leave us a comment. We would appreciate all that you can do. If you really like this episode, please share it with a friend or two.