6 minute read
Helping others ONE STEP AT A TIME
BY SHEILA DECHANTAL
PHOTOS BY JOEY HALVORSON
Amanda Munkeby grew up on a dairy farm in Bemidji, Minnesota. Like most young kids who have the opportunity to grow up in that kind of environment, Amanda had a love for the outdoors. When she wasn’t in school, she spent her days riding bike, horseback riding, taking part in 4-H, and riding around the farm on their 3-wheeler.
At the age of 15, Amanda’s life changed forever.
While riding around the yard on the 3-wheeler, Amanda crossed a road as she often would do, to visit the neighbors. On this day in 1996, a neighbor driving a truck did not see Amanda and hit her broadside as she was crossing on the 3-wheeler. The right side of her body was hit the hardest from the impact as she faded to unconsciousness.
Amanda was stabilized in Bemidji and then airlifted to a Hennepin hospital where she would spend the next six weeks. While the doctors were able to work on healing Amanda’s collapsed arm and fractured pelvis, the reconstructing of her right leg proved to be beyond what they could do. Around four weeks in, the decision was made to remove the damaged leg, just below the knee cap. There was no other option.
At a month in, Amanda was confined to a wheelchair prior to the first of what would be to date around 20 prosthetic legs. Amanda recalls there wasn’t a lot of rehabilitation offered at the hospital. From the time of the first prosthetic, Amanda’s first mission was to learn how to walk.
“It was an awkward sensation,” Amanda shared. “Not so much painful as uncomfortable. You have parts of your body now bearing weight that were not intended to bear weight.” For a time, while Amanda learned to use the prosthetic for movement, she was homeschooled. As a sophomore, when she did return to school she remembers being self-conscious, yet, she was in a small school and everyone — students and teachers alike — were very supportive. “Being in public was a little harder. People would stare. Young kids would say things out loud like, “‘Mom, look! She doesn’t have a leg!’ As a young adult, this was hard.”
While the early years of being an amputee had its trials, Amanda knew she could live a full life just like anyone else. Married shortly after high school, she went on to have four children and dedicated her time to raising her family. Like most, when raising young children, there was not a lot of extra time, yet as the children grew older, Amanda began to find her way back to doing some of the things she had enjoyed as a kid. It was about six years ago she made the decision to run.
“I wanted to run. So I started to run. It felt odd and it was not without pain. My prosthesis was made for walking, not running. There are prosthetics made for running, but they were expensive, so I ran with a walking prosthesis, and the first time I ran about a mile, I was so emotional. I could not believe I accomplished this — it was like I died and had gone to heaven all at the same time.”
Amanda wanted anyone who had a prosthesis to feel this accomplishment or anyone who experienced anything healthwise that made them feel they couldn’t do things to know they can. She knew the cities had programs in place to help people reach goals both physically and mentally, however she wasn’t seeing it offered in central Minnesota. Driven by a passion to be a resource to her community after attending a mobile clinic in 2019, Amanda reached out to Aaron Holm, founder of Wiggle Your Toes, who had lost both of his legs in an accident in 2007.
Wiggle Your Toes, founded in 2008, has a mission to help amputees regain independence and mobility. With a mission to help others live their lives to the fullest, Aaron’s incredible drive made Amanda take notice. Meeting with Aaron and sharing her story as well as her desire to do the same here in central Minnesota was met with excitement and encouragement. Aaron has encouraged and supported Amanda in creating a Wiggle Your Toes program for those right here in our community. The things that were not accessible to Amanda as she learned and made her own way, was something she wanted to be certain others did not need to struggle through.
“This is the community I want to serve. We need information here and we need to educate others,” Amanda said.
In 2022, Amanda offered the first Wiggle Your Toes Brainerd Lakes Area Mobility Clinic. This clinic served as an adaptive fitness event for all ambulatory fitness levels. This adaptive strength and agility workout is offered for free for whoever wants to attend. This pilot program continued January to April of 2023. Amanda spends time with attendees to discuss creating healthy habits, learning to move from light stretches and bending, to strength training, bringing services that were once only offered in the metro.
Amanda continues to enjoy outdoor activities much like she did as a child. She has gone from that first triumphant mile of running to run many 5Ks and a half marathon in Rochester, Minnesota. She enjoys kayaking, biking and a little horseback riding.
Amanda is a member of the Lakes Area Multisport group that meets to run, bike swim, train and encourage. Last year she participated in Last Runner Standing at Ski Gull and is looking forward to participating this year at both Ski Gull as well as in Duluth.
Amanda’s desire to help others in central Minnesota is inspirational. Her drive and passion to live life to the fullest despite the obstacles we are given is something we should all strive for.
Sheila DeChantal is an event coordinator, freelance writer, lover of friends, family, community, creating fun local events, adventures, books and coffee. She is the Friends of The Brainerd Public Library president and the vice president of Camp Benedict. In her spare time, you will find her reading, writing, hanging out with friends, or enjoying time with her husband Al, and granddaughter, Kylie.
