00:00I was a gay closeted Mormon kid and I never quite fit and so I got in the world really quickly
00:05and that's kind of brought me to where I am today.
00:12I started Gorilla Aid in my early 30s and was a way for me to have an adventure and try to make
00:17the world a better place at the same time. So I was out in Uganda and I had just been there a few
00:22weeks and I was coming around the corner on my motorcycle and I was hit broadside by a speeding
00:28Land Rover and got kind of my butt kicked. I shattered my femur, broke both my shoulders,
00:33my arms, tore my knees off and I just kind of laid in the road. It was a pretty scary time for me but
00:38like the accident itself it was broken bones and it just taking time to knit and heal but what was
00:44the big dramatic change for me is I became a completely different person. You know one day
00:50I'm on a motorcycle in Africa working with the most beautiful people and doing good things and the next
00:56day I am stationary I'm stuck in a bed that ended up being for years. Despite all the challenges I
01:03was faced by being stuck on my porch one of the beautiful things that happened is I was able to
01:07reconnect with my mom and dad but my dad had a stroke 20 years earlier. My mother took care of
01:12my dad for those entire 20 years and once he passed away she was kind of freed up from that daily care
01:18and she and I had always been close. I got my love of travel for her so I decided to come up with an
01:23idea to to take her around the around Europe and I was talking with some friends and a producer from
01:27People ended up calling me and saying they wanted to follow us and document it online and and I was
01:34thrilled. We're gonna take you on 20 adventures one for each year that you gave dad.
01:39And it was one of those things that you just can't imagine is happening I'm having thousands hundreds
01:49of thousands of people following us online with people and they're sending suggestions and so we're
01:55running around Europe being directed by people readers and it was just one of the most magical
02:01times I could ever imagine. We are going all the way to the top. It's just gorgeous to just to go all the way around.
02:10It's just one of those times that you know every son would dream of you know to take his mother on
02:15adventure and and make her feel loved but when we got home tragedy really struck and
02:31unfortunately she had an intruder come in and uh beat and raped her but we decided to focus on
02:39her strength because I watched as neighbors would walk in there would be these neighbors these women
02:42that are her age and they would get all hush hush and they'd speak in these quiet tones if you don't
02:47need to tell anyone Carla you know we don't need to talk about us anymore and I'd watch my mom's shoulders
02:52fall a little bit and I'd watch her just kind of sink into this victim sadness um and it really angered me
02:59it really angered me so much so I I slid into the old version of me the the world aid guy we started
03:06to go fund me we started to raise money and we raised over fifty thousand dollars she started to
03:11distribute money she gave me to women's shelters and she gave me money to women in need and she
03:16and she started to pay off backlogs of rape kits that hadn't been tested and she was doing all these
03:22things and she and she found her strength again after after the events um that happened um she
03:30didn't last much longer she she went downhill fairly quickly after that and so when she passed it was
03:37almost another their time in life where it's like now what do I do my mom is gone and now what for the
03:43back of my life there are these massive swings of highs and lows and they left me kind of numb in the
03:49middle and I was just wondering where I fit you know where I fit in the world I'm in my 50s now
03:54there was this adventurous guy in his 30s running around the world doing good things and there was
03:58this broken man in his 40s and so who actually am I just on a whim I started making phone calls to
04:04past supporters saying hey you know what I'm slower now I'm in my 50s but how do I go back out there do
04:09you think you could help a little bit and without fail every person from my past and supported me in
04:14my past said we're in and so I decided you know I'm going to try this again so I had this really
04:20grand list I'm going to hit a new country every 10 days I'm going to do all these things I'm going
04:24to try to get 30 countries done in the year and I got out there I'm like I'm going to stay in Armenia
04:29a little longer this is where my great-grandparents are from and we were able to plant an acre of trees
04:34in Armenia on behalf of my my Armenian grandmother and then I went to Laos and Vietnam and I was able to
04:39harvest rice with these Hmong family that I had met and become friends with and then I went to Bali and
04:46I ripped off both my shoulders surfing with orphan kids so I got stuck in Bali for months I was able
04:51to raise like $70,000 to rebuild roofs on handicapped facilities and we redid therapy pools and got
04:58equipment and we were able to do so many things just because I stayed a little bit longer now I'm back
05:03in Woodstock and I've signed back up to be a substitute driver for Meals on Wheels and just
05:08the basic things that I can do wherever I am but I don't think I've done I don't think I've done all
05:14it took was for me to take one step and I proved to myself that I wasn't as broken as I thought
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