On August 29, Tara Stopinski — better known to many in the motorcycle community as “Tig” — was critically injured in a motorcycle accident in Tennessee.

We cannot say thank you enough for the incredible actions of the bystanders and first responders who provided lifesaving care on the side of the road and got her to a LifeStar helicopter that was able to land nearby and transport her immediately to the hospital.

Their actions are why Mom is still here with us today.

For that, our family will be forever grateful.

Before we tell you about the road ahead, we want to tell you a little about our family.

Tara and Joe (Mom and Dad) are not just husband and wife, but best friends. Dad spent 30 years serving his community as a police officer in New Jersey, while Mom spent years raising her family and doing something else she loved — coaching gymnastics.

As they got closer to retirement, they spent several years vacationing in East Tennessee every chance they had. They fell in love with riding motorcycles, the Smoky Mountains, East Tennessee, and the people they met along the way. They knew that someday this was where they wanted to call home.

In 2021, they made that dream a reality and moved to Knoxville, quickly building an incredible East Tennessee family around them.

Not long after moving, Tara decided she'd spent enough time on the back of the bike and wanted to learn how to ride herself. She took the class, got her license, and that was pretty much it.

She was hooked!

In 2023, a Baja Orange and black Harley-Davidson Street Glide hit the showroom floor at what had quickly become Mom and Dad's second home, Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson. The second she took it for a test ride, she knew she had to have it.

She appropriately named the bike Tigger. Tara became “Tig” to the motorcycle world, and the rest is history!

At traffic lights, she was regularly met with thumbs-up or little kids yelling “Tigger!” to their parents after spotting Tigger on the side of her saddlebag.

And it's pretty difficult to anonymously ride around East Tennessee on a bright orange Street Glide. Everywhere she went, someone would inevitably tell her, “Hey Tig, saw you riding yesterday!”

It never failed to light her up.

In just three years of riding, Tara has put more than 37,000 miles on her motorcycle — more than many riders put on a bike in a lifetime. Riding became one of the great joys of her life.

Just as importantly, riding gave her an incredible two-wheeled family. In those miles, she has built lifelong friendships and gained dozens of friends through the riding groups she is part of, many of whom she is proud to call her motorcycle sisters.

But there is one thing Tara loves even more than being on two wheels: her family.

She's been married to her best friend since high school, has two pretty amazing kids — Kevin and Amanda, if we do say so ourselves — and last year earned perhaps her favorite title yet when Amanda and her husband James brought Tara's first granddaughter, Emma, into the world and made her officially “Mimi.”

Mimi time might be the one thing capable of beating motorcycle time.

And that is the Tara — or “Tig” — we know: wife, Mom, Mimi, friend, and motorcycle sister.

Now she is facing the biggest challenge of her life.

Tara suffered devastating injuries in the crash. During her first emergency surgery, doctors were forced to amputate her left foot and ankle below the knee. She also suffered significant additional fractures below the knee, and on August 31, she underwent a second surgery to stabilize and support her entire left leg.

Our hope is that this will allow her injuries to stabilize and begin healing before additional surgeries, which we know will be needed. Her doctors are continuing to work toward repairing the remaining damage and giving Tara the best possible quality of life so she can continue doing the things she loves.

There is still a long road ahead.

Life changed for Mom and our entire family in an instant.

But above everything else, we are incredibly blessed that Mom is still here.

Anyone who knows her knows how strong she is. And anyone who has spent five minutes with her knows that she's going to face this the same way she faces everything else — head-on.

We have no doubt she is going to come out on top of this deal.

Right now, though, we are only at the very beginning.

There are still far more questions than answers. We know there will be additional surgeries, rehabilitation, prosthetics, transportation needs, accessibility changes at home, and a completely new way of navigating everyday life.

There will also be countless expenses that we haven't even begun to anticipate.

Amanda, her Husband James, and Emma live in Pennsylvania while Kevin and Tonya (his other half) live in upstate New York. Tara's Tennessee family and friends have already rallied around her in an incredible way and over the coming weeks and months, our family will be traveling back and forth to Tennessee to spend time with Mom, support Dad, and help them through every stage of her recovery.

Donations will help with the many unexpected expenses that come with a life-changing event like this, including medical and rehabilitation costs, transportation, future accessibility needs and modifications at home, family travel and lodging, meals during long hospital days and trips, everyday household expenses, and the many needs we simply don't know about yet.

And everyday life doesn't stop when tragedy happens.

That includes making sure Tara and Joe's Rottie, Sully, is happy and well cared for while Mom focuses on healing — even if that means Sully gets a lot more doggie daycare time than he ever expected.

We don't know exactly what the next several weeks, months, or years will look like.

What we do know is that Tara has an incredible family and community around her, and none of us are going anywhere.

If you are able to contribute, every donation — no matter the amount — will help give Tara and our family one less thing to worry about while she focuses on healing, rebuilding, and getting back to being Mom, Mimi, and Tig.

If you aren't able to donate, sharing her story, sending some encouragement, or simply keeping her in your thoughts means more to our family than you know.

Thank you for the overwhelming love and support already surrounding our family.

We are incredibly fortunate to still have her with us. And if we know Tara, this is just the beginning of one hell of a comeback.

With love and gratitude,

Tara, Joe, Kevin, Tonya, Amanda, James & Emma