RCS dominates in 2nd game of season

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

RAVENA — The community turned out in force Sunday to support the Special Olympics and the local family that has made it their mission.

And at the core of the annual initiative is a 5-year-old girl whose strength and resilience have inspired a community.

Kaya Feliciano was born with Down Syndrome and a sunny smile.

Her parents, Ariel Feliciano and Kirsten Ross, began holding an annual car show back in 2019 in honor of their daughter, and on Sunday held their fourth annual event at their business, Feliciano’s Body Works on Route 9W.

Each year, the car show raises thousands of dollars for Special Olympics.

The organization offers children and adults with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to train and compete in their choice of 22 different sports, including swimming, gymnastics, hockey, cycling, bowling, distance running, bocce, golf, skating and more, according to the Special Olympics New York website.

For Feliciano and Ross, the annual fundraiser is a labor of love that dates back to their business’ opening.

“We started off doing our grand opening back in 2019 and we wanted to have a purpose, so we had a car show to raise money for the Special Olympics,” Ross said.

The beneficiary of the show has special meaning for the family.

“We met a woman back when Kaya was an infant — Kaya was blessed with Down Syndrome — she approached us and told us how lucky we were and how blessed she was, and we wanted to give back to that,” Ross said. That’s what we did and we have done it every year since, raising money for the Special Olympics.”

While Kaya is too young to compete just yet — children have to be at least 8 years old — she is working hard to prepare for competition.

“Kaya is part of the Special Olympics Youth Athlete Program,” Ross said. “It’s a beginning program, they do a lot of fundamental stuff which helps with OT (occupational therapy) and PT (physical therapy), and it gets them involved.”

This is a big year for Kaya — she just started kindergarten last month, her mother said.

Kaya’s dad, Ariel Feliciano, said enabling his daughter to participate in sports is important for his family.

“We have other kids who have always been heavily into sports and with Kaya blessed with Down Syndrome, we wanted to give back,” Feliciano said. “We do Special Olympics because our kids are into sports and we wanted her to be involved in anything athletic, too.”

More than 60 cars participated in this year’s car show at Feliciano’s Body Works. The numbers were down a bit this year likely due to threatening storm clouds — although it never actually rained Sunday — and classic and specialty car owners are leery of taking their prized vehicles out if there is any chance of rain, Feliciano said.

Each year, the benefit raises thousands of dollars for Special Olympics.

“Last year at our car show, we raised a little over $15,000,” Ross said.

The car show, combined with a Polar Plunge the family does in November at Lake George for another fundraising initiative, raised over $20,000 for Special Olympics last year. The car show raises funds through entry fees for the competing cars, food sales, raffles and more.

Sunday’s event was a labor of love not only for the family, but for the entire community, Ross said.

“We have a bunch of local businesses that are sponsors that donated the money for the food or they donated things to bring in money — we have event T-shirts, we have raffle tables, food, and face painting and henna tattoos for the kids,” Ross said.

At the end of the event, trophies were handed out to the winning vehicle owners in several categories, including Best of Show, Best Paint, Best of the ‘80s, and Top 10.

“The majority of people that come to these car shows have been customers of ours, they are friends of ours. They see what we do with Kaya, they see how we include her in typical, everyday activities,” Ross said. “They see how we give back and we’ve had a ton of people come out and help. It really and truly is a labor of love.”