More than a dozen basketball players who have gone through the Rising Stars program now grace a mural at the nonprofit's newly opened facility in Freeport.
“It's kind of come full circle,” Executive Director Daniel Gimpel said Tuesday, pointing to a black-and-white halftone image of Evan Conti wearing a Quinnipiac University jersey and looking off into the distance. After playing for the Rising Stars, Conti went on to play college basketball, then professionally in Israel, and is currently the assistant head basketball coach at St. Michael's College in Vermont.
“He was a junior, so we followed him to college,” Gimpel said.
Throughout its 25-year history, the organization has operated out of a variety of schools, but until now it has not had its own facilities. After nearly two years and a $2.5 million renovation, ReadySet, a children's home that opened in 2021, now occupies 16,000 square feet of the former National Guard Armory building in Freeport.・Sharing the building with Grow Learning Academy. There are two high school regulation size basketball courts, two fitness rooms, classrooms and a sports medicine room.
In 2019, New York State turned over the then-vacant Armory building to the Village of Freeport. Newsday previously reported that the organization would pay the village more than $10,000 a month to use the space.
Gimpel said the program has about 500 participants, about 300 boys and 200 girls. The organization provides training and field travel teams throughout the year. Although the focus is on basketball, the space will also be used for volleyball and other activities in the future.
“One of the best things about what we do is the diversity of our programs,” Gimpel, 48, said in an interview. “We have kids from all walks of life… They can learn from each other, participate in different experiences, and learn how others grow.”
Lessons in teamwork and camaraderie teach children values for the rest of their lives, he said.
“It teaches you hard work. It teaches you commitment… being responsible to your teammates,” Gimpel said. “The team is bigger than just you.”
He said Rising Stars is focused on more than just games, providing tuition and scholarships to private schools.
“The only way to get into this program is to do well in school,” Gimpel said.
One of its programs teaches financial literacy to middle school and high school students. Christopher DiLeonardo, director of education and development at Jovia Financial Credit Union, one of his Rising Stars sponsors, said there are many ways to improve financial literacy, including learning about credit scores, budgeting, and protecting yourself online. I teach classes on “Educating Young People about the Way.''
“That's something they're not learning in the classroom right now,” DiLeonardo said. The class is free for children in the Rising Stars program and aims to “help children become financially literate by the time they graduate high school.”
Conti, 30, said in an interview that the program helped prepare her for life and career through dedicated mentorship.
“Sports has a really special way of preparing you for anything that happens in life. I don't think anything else can prepare you for such high-pressure situations,” Conti said.
New Rising Star Facility
16,000 square feet in the former National Guard Armory building in Freeport.
It opened after undergoing renovations that took about two years and cost $2.5 million.
The Rising Stars program has approximately 500 participants (approximately 300 boys and 200 girls).
