The Viscardi Center in Albertson has unveiled a new aquatic center designed to provide disabled children and adults with aquatic physical education programming starting this fall.
The John J. Gutleber Aquatic Center, named after the former president and CEO of Castagna Realty who served on The Viscardi Center’s board of directors for over 25 years, was updated over three years through the firm’s contributions to recent capital campaigns.
“The Viscardi students certainly deserve this wonderful pool restoration,” said Catherine Castagna, president of Castagna Realty. “We applaud The Viscardi Center’s mission of educating, employing, and empowering people with disabilities. My parents, Rita and Frank, set a remarkable example for me, and everyone at Castagna Realty, on the importance of giving back to the community. The Viscardi Center has always been very near and dear to our hearts, and we have such enormous respect and gratitude for the amazing work that they do.”
The center will include a fully accessible environment, heated pool, wheelchair ramps, lifts and specialized walls, among other features.
CEO and President Chris Rosa said the new aquatic center will greatly benefit the students.
“We pride ourselves on enhancing opportunities for individuals with disabilities and staying ahead of the curve when it comes to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Risa said in a statement. “The John J. Gutleber Aquatic Center serves as a model of universal design that will introduce a uniquely accessible experience to our students at the Henry Viscardi School as part of their physical education curriculum.”
The Viscardi Center’s K-12 school serves medically fragile and severely disabled children with a graduation and college acceptance rate of 86 percent. The center, located in Albertson, provides after-school athletic programs, transportation and modern technologies and curriculums designed to give students an accessible but rigorous academic experience.
The other side of the center offers programs to disabled adolescents and adults and school districts looking for transitioning planning services, prevocational work, testing and job placement. The center places roughly 120 people a year in competitive, integrated employment and provides support and advocacy beyond a participant’s tenure at the center.
The educational and employment services the Viscardi Center offers serve 2,000 people a year from all five boroughs of the city, and Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk counties.
Founded in 1952 in a West Hempstead garage, the center moved to its current Albertson facility in the 1960s, where it then expanded services to include the school, which uses the pool in its curriculum.
