Kinetic Kids has provided adapted sports and fine arts programming around San Antonio for over 24 years, yet over the past decade, they noticed that families were driving from other communities like New Braunfels and Boerne because there were no options for adapted activities in their local community. After piloting programs in New Braunfels using the same successful Kinetic Kids model popular in San Antonio, they realized that the outlying and rural communities needed their programming, too.
Q&A with Carrie Valdez, Kinetic Kids Satellite Director
Tell us about the need for your grant.
Once we decided to expand to New Braunfels, Castroville, and the Hill Country/Boerne areas, we needed a partner to help us with our start-up expenses like hiring satellite coordinators, equipment & supplies for programs and finales, registration expenses, and facility rental fees. These were some big expenses for us to successfully grow our programs properly and serve each community well. With the Impact San Antonio High Impact grant, we have been able to successfully provide programming in each of these three satellite locations, and because we could hire satellite coordinators, we are building strong networks of support that we hope will continue to support Kinetic Kids for many years to come.
How did the High Impact Grant help Kinetic Kids?
We had already identified the locations we wanted to focus our outlying growth, and we were prepared for a grassroots approach to growing and serving these communities. The High Impact grant gave us the financial support and the momentum to get started in these new communities beyond our grassroots approach. With the High Impact Grant, we now had the financial security of knowing the equipment, facility fees, and staff expenses for the first year were covered. This allowed us to focus our attention on serving more children with special needs and connecting with the communities. Impact SA gave us the opportunity to break down barriers and provide adapted sports and fine arts to these smaller communities. We are forever grateful for this opportunity to serve even more children with special needs by bringing our programs directly to the communities.
Do you have any upcoming news/events that you want to tell Impact San Antonio members about?
Yes, we host multiple programs each season in these satellite locations and San Antonio. At the end of each season, we celebrate the success of our athletes with a finale, which could be a championship game or recital with awards and trophies. This is such a heartwarming experience to see, and we would love to share it with any Impact SA members who are interested in coming out and watching just how much fun our kids are having when they dance with joy, swim with success, and hit a home run. Impact SA members are welcome to join us at any of our finales in our satellite areas (Boerne, Castroville, New Braunfels) or San Antonio. A link to our finale schedule is here: https://kinetickidstx.org/program-finales. Witness the success of the impact Impact SA has made. We invite members to join our Walk Run Roll event in Castroville in July, our Hit-a-thon in New Braunfels in August, or our Hootenanny Gala in October. More information on these and all our annual events can be found at https://kinetickidstx.org/kinetickids_events
How do you feel about Impact San Antonio and what they do for our community?
We are grateful for Impact San Antonio! We have loved working with this group of energetic, passionate women who come together for great causes! These high-impact grants allow many passionate, caring, deserving organizations to put their dreams into action. Financial support allows our directors the time to focus on the immediate needs of Kinetic Kids and plan for the future. During the year we received funding, Kinetic Kids focused on assessing sustainability in these three communities. The Impact SA grant has helped to change communities, not only to be more inclusive of special needs children and their families, but has also increased awareness of our families’ needs. It has allowed people in the community to volunteer alongside us and learn more about Kinetic Kids’ mission. These communities are now able to realize how their involvement can literally change kids’ lives. We are confident our satellite locations will continue to prosper and impact our special needs community for many years to come.
