|
Belong, Play, Thrive. |
 Stefanie Kostenblatt and Sue Babcock registering volunteers at the Goshen Public Library Volunteer Fair November 2023 I often contemplate the myriad of hardships lined up like billboards in the lives of people on this journey called life. Circumstances, diagnoses, unforeseen challenges, invisible obstacles, intersectionality, there are so many factors pulling at us on any given day. Our individual journeys are vast and varied and trying to imagine someone else's experience invites in empathy. It also takes time.
Like so many complex issues, special needs caregiving is a space all its own. It comes with many different names, phrases, needs and challenges. Enduring all of that can be isolating. The idea that we're all in this together was commonly referenced during the pandemic. It reminded us that what we did and did not do as a society, neighbors and humans had a veritable impact on other people's lives. Knowing the condition that is isolation with this level of intimacy serves us. Now we know that it's in the ways we come together, in whatever capacity we can, that we find strength and healing. In that way, we are more than a program, we are a community. Beautiful People Adaptive Sports is a stunning turf field in Warwick, a court at BOCES, a multipurpose room at the Newburgh JCC, a grassy field in New Windsor, the dome at Hudson Sports Complex, the indoor field at Newburgh Armory, a bustling bowling alley in Middletown and Warwick, the stables at Winslow Theraputic Riding - partnership-based sites where we all can come together. To enter our program at any of these locations is to walk across a bridge, as our founders imagined, and find yourself surrounded in a space that is joyful, welcoming, accepting and inclusive. We come together as athletes, families and volunteers from different areas of the region and for our own individual reasons. What we find when we arrive is strength in ways we didn't know we had and healing we didn't know we needed. Yours in Community, Stefanie Kostenblatt, Executive Director
0 Comments
|
AuthorStefanie Kostenblatt, Executive Director Archives
March 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed