We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelsey Boyer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kelsey, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

In 2016 I was competing in slope-style snowboarding in high hopes of climbing the olympic ladder. I started off my season with a complete knock out and continued to hit my head over the next 2 months. The pressure of attending every contest was leading me versus listening to my body. One specific head hit, changed my life forever. I took one of the worst falls of my life and was showing a lot of concussion symptoms but 5 doctors in a 2 week period said I was fine and that I was just experiencing post concussion syndrome. My symptoms were progressing to uncontrollable mood-swings, ringing in my ears and gagging non stop so finally my best friend forced me into the ER. The nurse took a CT scan and came back into the room ghost white and said, “You have been bleeding in the brain for 2 weeks. Your brain has shifted 11mm and you are lucky to be alive,” and followed with “you wouldn’t have survived the night.” Next thing I know, I am going into emergency brain surgery. As you can imagine this was a terrifying and unknown situation. After the surgery, I was on the recovery floor for 2 weeks and released back into the world with no support, education or resources.

My recovery was dark, lonely and I had to retire my olympic dream. I went the next 4 years with severe depression, insomnia, mood-swings, tinnitus and it hurt to move my eyes every single day. I realized there was a massive void in this world surrounding concussions, brain health and mental health. I wanted no one to ever experience what I did and if they did, I wanted to fill those voids. This led me to create a non-profit called Save A Brain. We focus on prevention and education of traumatic brain injuries and concussions. It is my purpose to fill those voids within our programming and create a strong community for individuals to lean on throughout their head injury journey. Over 3 million head injuries alone happen annually in the United States and we no longer have to be scared of this invisible injury. We can come together to educate ourselves, learn how to care for our brains and simply break the stigma surrounding this injury as a community.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Life is a wild unpredictable ride but everything that I am about to tell you has led me to my main purpose in life. I was born in amish country Pennsylvania and grew up 10 minutes down the road from a tiny ski resort. My older sister started snowboarding so I naturally followed her path but something was different with me, I was hooked. I started when I was 13 and my parents would drive me to the hill every single day after school. I decided to stop playing soccer in high school and started to compete in snowboarding contests. I was a natural competitor and loved how competition challenged my way of thinking. I was doing pretty well in the east coast circuit but decided I wanted to grow and give it my all so I packed my bags after graduating high school and moved out west. I got a job at a summer ski & snowboard camp in Oregon that I spent my next 8 summers at. The snowboard community was a family that shared the same interests and values which made me feel right at home. One thing led to another and I spent my winters in Salt Lake City and Breckenridge to train in high hopes of representing my country in the olympics. I put all of my eggs in one basket and went for it but life had a much different path for me. In 2016 as I was competing, I experienced 8 concussions in a 2 month period but instead of taking time off, I kept pushing through. Everyone around me could see that I was not fully there but I was so hyper focused that I ignored all of the red flags.

This led me to my purpose, Save A Brain. We are a non profit that focuses on prevention and education of traumatic brain injuries and concussions. We are filling a massive void within the community by providing resources, education and programming to help individuals. We have our Happy Helmets program where we donate brand new helmets to non profits and youth programs. We have donated up to 2,400 helmets and saved that many brains with that program alone. We offer a concussion guide that is for 8 year olds and up to understand so little Johnny can education himself and his family. Every year we offer helmet checks to monumental action sports contest that host the best of the best athletes. We certify that their helmets are safe and ready to help them perform at the highest level and to this day, we have certified 600 helmets. One of our biggest tools is our virtual education which we adapted to during covid and have proudly educated 380,000 brains. On Youtube, instagram and TikTok we host different programming that can offer education and understanding of brain health. Some of these programs include Intentional Eating Series which is an educational series that dives into nutritious ingredients and easy recipes. Blair the Animated Brain is one of our favorites and they do all of our educating through story telling. We hit our 3 year mark in May and we are leveling up our programming which we can’t wait to share with the world soon!

Save A Brain extends beyond just head injuries, we truly believe in prevention and education and how crucial it is to live a fulfilled life. If it wasn’t for my friends, I would not be here typing this today. Educate yourself on how to be there for someone going through a head injury because you could save their life. If you are reading this and need a safe space to go, please reach out. At the end of the day, we only get one brain.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Not only did I have to give up on my dream but I had to find the strength within me to keep going after my brain surgery. Any one who has ever sustained a head injury is a true warrior and resilient. The odds were not in my favor to ever snowboard again but I did not settle for that. I get to share my love for snowboarding and found a newfound love for it again and for that, I am grateful. SAB came to existence from everything that I felt like I was missing for my recovery. It has been 7 years since my surgery and I can confidently say that my brain injury has been my biggest teacher in life. Every branch of programming that we continue to create is stemmed from a resilient community that I am a part of and it inspires us to keep going, no matter the obstacles that we endure.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest lessons that I had to learn was to accept my brain injury and take off my mask. A few months ago, I had the worst panic attack of my life and it shook me. Save A Brain is a story of hope which made me feel like I had to put a mask on and pretend like everything was fine even though I have been experiencing symptoms from a head hit this winter. I learned that my brain injury is a part of me and will be with me my whole entire life. This is a lesson that I learn and unlearn throughout the years and I’m learning to give myself grace through the healing process. We aren’t given a manual on how to live with a brain injury but we can all lean on each other to navigate it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://saveabraininc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saveabrain/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saveabraininc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saveabrain
• Personal instagram: @kelseyboyer

Image Credits
Photographer: Melissa Riitano