Every day, 500 people in the United States lose a limb. In 2005, Billy Brimblecom, Jr., became one of them.

Brimblecom, then 28, was living in Kansas City, Missouri, and working as a professional drummer when he lost a leg to cancer. Immediately, he worried that it would mean losing his livelihood. Getting a prosthetic leg seemed like the solution, as it would allow him to keep living and making music as he had before; then he learned that one would cost $60,000. Fortunately, he had a resourceful, supportive community around him: His friends staged a benefit show on his behalf, raising enough money to secure him the prosthetic. A few months after losing his leg, Brimblecom was back to performing.

Steps of Faith Foundation, the nonprofit where Brimblecom now serves as CEO, works to make outcomes like his possible for all people. The organization connects uninsured and underinsured amputees with prostheses, working to ensure that they get the support they need without falling into financial ruin. Its leaders, including Brimblecom, know that access to a quality prosthesis can be life-changing: It can improve mobility, provide independence and economic security, and restore access to the hobbies and activities that provide meaning to people’s lives.

When Steps of Faith began in 2013, it was still more an idea than an organization, with many passionate contributors but without infrastructure, funds, or set plans for the road ahead. In its first year, Steps of Faith served around 10 people; since then, it has grown to support more than 2,000 amputees.

Steps of Faith gained new energy and momentum when it moved its headquarters from Nashville to Brimblecom’s hometown of Kansas City. There, the nonprofit connected with a new network of people—many of them the same ones who’d stepped up to support Brimblecom 20 years earlier. Their creative spirit lives on: Since 2017, Steps of Faith has hosted an annual variety show fundraiser called Thundergong! The series is driven by a simple idea: People want to help others, and they want to have a good time while doing it. Supporting a good cause doesn’t have to feel different from attending a great concert or comedy show. At Thundergong!, audiences laugh, cry, sing, and dance—and Brimblecom plays drums. 

The most recent Thundergong! raised over $1 million—Steps of Faith’s biggest night yet. Through the event and other efforts, and with the support of the Ford Foundation and thousands of individual donors, Brimblecom and his team have been able to expand their reach to serve amputees across the country.

The people Steps of Faith serves have gone on to return to the activities they love—including making music, skateboarding, and working in nursing and construction—with the independence that a quality prosthesis unlocks. The organization’s community includes Jerry, from Kansas, who became homeless after losing his leg in a tractor accident, and has since returned to his work and lives in his own apartment; Daina, who lost her mother, two children, and her leg in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and models confidence and resilience with every step; and Josh from Nashville, who lost his leg in a motorcycle accident last year, and joined Billy onstage at Thundergong! in November with his new prosthesis.

A few years after Brimblecom lost his leg, his doctor asked if he’d be willing to speak to a young man who was being fitted for his first prosthesis. Brimblecom agreed and, after their conversation, he went home and told his wife that he wished he could have similar conversations every day—that those conversations could become his job. Now, they have.

As Brimblecom often says, ideally, Steps of Faith wouldn’t need to exist, because everyone who needs access to a quality prosthesis would receive it through an efficient, accessible, and equitable system. But until then, the organization will keep working to fill the gaps—to reach people where they are and provide the resources they need to live independent, fulfilling lives, one step at a time.