Hundreds of community members joined Ability Beyond on April 26th to celebrate The Magic Within during Ability Beyond’s annual Gala & Beyond as we honored The Finkelstein Family with the 2025 Robert S. Young Humanitarian Award.

“The annual gala is Ability Beyond’s largest fundraiser of the year and generates funding for many initiatives and enhancements that support the people we serve,” said Tracy Conte, the Vice President of Development and Community Engagement. “We are so grateful to the many donors and sponsors who united to honor an exceptional family that has been such an integral part of our agency’s success and growth.”

The Gala was chaired this year by Patricia Breede, of Ridgefield, CT, with generous support from Diamond Sponsor Mulvaney Mechanical, Inc. as well as Platinum Sponsors Belimo, Colonial Automobile Group, Linde, Mutual of America and NFP.

Robert S. Young Humanitarian Award

For more than 40 years, the Robert S. Young Humanitarian Award has been presented to an individual or group whose efforts have positively contributed to improving the quality of life in the communities served by Ability Beyond.
The advocacy for support for people living with brain injuries and leadership on the Board of Directors by the late Elliot and Sandy Finkelstein continues on through their sons, Steven, Peter and Michael, and the family’s longtime partnership to employ the people we serve at Mt. Kisco Truck & Auto Parts.

Sandy and Elliot changed the landscape in Westchester County and New York State. Finding that services for traumatic brain injuries were severely lacking during the 1980’s, they went to Albany and began their mission and lifetime commitment to advocate on behalf of their son Michael and others with brain injuries. They were among the founders of the Brain Injury Association of New York State as well as starting and running a Westchester chapter support group.

Along with their sons, Steven and Peter, the Finkelstein family became early leaders in employing people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury. Their company, Mt. Kisco Truck & Auto Parts, a family-run business in Westchester, has employed the people Ability serves for more than 30 years. Elliot served on the Board of Directors of Ability Beyond for many years, and Steve has continued to serve on our Board of Trustees.

The family business and long-time partnership with Ability to employ people with disabilities was featured in the Gala’s mission video.

Photos

View event photos courtesy of Fairfield County Look as well as our photobooth gallery.

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