With 600 total registrations for young athletes in 2023, Warwick-based non-profit Beautiful People is on a mission to build bridges between children with disabilities and their families and the broader community of Orange County by providing adaptive sports for children and young adults, ages 5 and up. Athletes can enroll with Beautiful People as early as 5 years old and continue on into young adulthood with some continuing until over 18 years old.

According to Beautiful People Executive Director Stefanie Kostenblatt, athletes can reside anywhere in Orange County, however the program is expanding in order to allow more families the opportunity and access to take advantage of the opportunities to play.

“We are based in Warwick at Field of Dreams where we have a turf field that was built for Beautiful People and is maintained by the Town of Warwick. Expansion goals include Newburgh area, Middletown, Port Jervis and we currently have pop-up programs in Goshen as well,” she explained.

Starting on January 25, Beautiful People will be offering volleyball at the Newburgh Jewish Community Center. The ability to offer access to programs for those young athletes and families in the eastern portion of Orange County is a critical component of moving toward the future. Kostenblatt shared that the move was piloted by her predecessor in late 2021 and was met with Board support given the opportunity to bring the program to more families.

“This launch speaks to an awareness campaign we are working on in the hopes of making more people aware of what we do and who we do it for combined with an increase in locations served. Proximate location is an important factor to parents with young children who are juggling activities and schedules,” Kostenblatt shared.

Kostenblatt stepped into the Executive Director role in 2023, and has hit the ground running by meeting with local recreation departments, scouting locations and connecting with potential partner agencies, and discussing volunteer recruitment efforts with local charitable organizations and other groups to build out expansion that is supported as modeled in Warwick.

“Each program requires coaches, buddies and parent-involvement. More than anything, we need an accessible space to enter and occupy. It’s a big undertaking and we want to ensure excellence is carried out to maintain the program at its current level,” she explained.

In addition to the young athletes that the program supports, volunteers who are able to donate time to the programs in each municipality are essential to the program’s success.

“Our volunteers are amazing, so many of them have been with us year-over-year. The same proximate issues that exist for our athletic families exist for our volunteers. We need to grow in each location served and properly staff events and programs so children who require coaching, prompting, assistance and cheering along the way have that in place. We want parents to be able to step back and enjoy watching their child on the field just as any parent would hope to do,” Kostenblatt explained.

With the future looking bright for Beautiful People, Kostenblatt is hopeful the non-profit will be welcomed with open arms as it continues to grow in the Hudson Valley.

“I want to put Beautiful People squarely on the map and reach out with outstretched arms to every family with children with disabilities and every household that wants to be part of creating a community of change towards acceptance and celebration regarding our special needs population,” explained Kostenblatt.

For more information about Beautiful People or to apply to be a volunteer please visit: beautiful-people.us.