Mental Health Momentum

Don Webber: Why One in Four Utahns Needs This Conversation


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What if the barrier isn’t your ability but the infrastructure around you?

Did you know one in four Utahns lives with a disability? Many also face financial and mental health challenges that compound those barriers. Wasatch Adaptive Sports removes them. 

But let’s start at the beginning. 

Meet Don Webber. 

Don is a former D1 football player, musician, nonprofit leader, and self-described “jack of all trades.” But behind the adventurous résumé is something far more relatable: lived experience with generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress.

After years in the advertising world—including time at Traeger Grills—Don felt the pull toward something deeper. Through volunteer work, he found his calling with Wasatch Adaptive Sports, a nonprofit founded in 1977 that empowers people with disabilities to improve their physical, mental, and social health through outdoor recreation.

And what started as volunteering became a mission.

At Wasatch Adaptive Sports, participants don’t pay. They redefine what’s possible.

As Don puts it, the shift is simple but radical:

Stop asking what you can’t do.

Start asking: What would it take to make this work?

This episode dives into:

  • Why anxiety thrives on limitation thinking

  • How businesses can support employee mental health

  • The power of removing structural barriers

  • Why outdoor recreation is a mental health intervention

  • How adaptive sports mirror therapeutic change

If you’ve ever believed something was out of reach, this episode might challenge you to reconsider.

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Mental Health MomentumBy Silicon Slopes