Our Stories
Wade grew up in St. Hilaire and after graduation moved to the cities. He attended 916 (now Century College) graduating as a certified orthotic and prosthetic technician. He took a position at Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford Rehabilitation and Engineering Center as a technician. Throughout his time there he worked primarily in prosthetics and orthotics. In addition, he also worked with custom seating, mobility, and communication systems. He was promoted to Production Manager (at the time the youngest manager Stanford had ever hired). Upon returning to Minnesota, he worked at Tillges Certified Orthotics and Prosthetics for 28 years.
Wade enjoys motorcycle riding, hunting, and woodworking.
Heidi grew up in Edina. After graduation attended McConnell to earn her Tourism degree. Moved to California to work for a wholesale travel company. While working earned her A.S. Degree in Accounting, A.S. Degree in Business Management, and Certificate in Public Administration Management all with high honors. Upon moving back to Minnesota worked for a property management company until childcare became an issue. They prioritized family and opened a daycare that continued until Heidi was pregnant with twins, in which she closed it. After giving birth to their twins, she began working as a self-contractor for Tillges Certified Orthotics and Prosthetics and ultimately as an employee. She remained there until starting Heidi’s Legs.
Heidi enjoys photography, creating scrapbooks, and making videos. She also enjoys putzing in the kitchen and creating “art” out of food.
Besides being passionate about assisting the amputee community they have a strong faith-based relationship. Together they enjoy the outdoors, camping, hiking, biking, and of course bonfires. Traveling including long road trips with and without their children. Wade and Heidi also like learning how things work, they take tours and visit museums. In addition, have an appreciation of art and are proud that nearly all the art in their home is their own or someone they know. They have both volunteered their entire lives with no plans of stopping.
They met over 36 years ago and have been together since. Have four children: Hunter, Phillip, Lacey, and Wyatt. All four children (and their significant others) are very supportive of this new chapter in their lives and lend a hand when needed. All of them volunteer with Wade and Heidi, which makes them very proud. “We all get more out of volunteering than we give…incredibly rewarding!” Heidi
Heidi’s Legs Story
Well…Heidi and Wade are in a new phase of life. As recent empty nesters, which is very exciting. They quickly realized they had too much time on their hands and not enough stress. After working for other people in the Prosthetic field for a combined 59 years, decided to chase a longstanding dream of opening their own prosthetic central fabrication. Thus, Heidi’s Legs was established in 2022. Rather than seeing patients on a traditional platform they will be providing personalized fabrication and education for practitioners and assisting with their patient needs. Note: they will miss the thousands of patients seen over the combined 59 years of service to the amputee community. However, their volunteering will be enhanced with our new freedom. Wade and Heidi rented a nice space, which is fully renovated and ready to produce awesome prosthetics. Wade named the new business Heidi’s Legs because “after all these years of watching Heidi’s legs chase our four children around it was appropriate”.