Ed Binns was born and raised in Mahopac, NY and has strong ties to his community. Ed is passionate about making his community the best that it can be. He believes in joining forces with community leaders and pooling energy and resources to accomplish positive change in the community. He especially has a passion for youth sports and making sure the children in the community have a forum for healthy activities and organized play to help them grow into fine young adults.
Ed’s parents were strongly involved in the Mahopac Sports Association in the 70’s with sponsorships and coaching of many sports that their children participated in. Ed learned this behavior and how giving back to the community is very important. Since taking over the business in 1993, Ed has continued his strong involvement in MSA. All County continued to sponsor many baseball, soccer, basketball and softball teams. Ed and his wife Diane coached many teams of their children, Colleen and Brian. Since 2003 Ed has been an active board member within the MSA. Starting as an equipment manager for the football program and eventually as program director and eventually taking a position on MSA’s executive board, where he is currently still a member. Sitting on the executive board allows Ed to work with local town and school officials for the betterment of sports related activities for all the youth in his community.
While being a board member and coach in the MSA, Ed also was involved in the High School Booster Club for football and cheerleading. Ed sat on the Mahopac Touchdown Club’s board of directors for 6 years. Working with the TD Club and MSA allowed Ed to build a strong program and represent athletes from kindergarten to 12th grade. Uniting a program and bringing HS and youth coaching staffs together was a positive achievement.
Over 15 years of continued involvement, Ed developed and organized community fund raising events to help further strengthen the community. 2008 was the birth of the “Kickoff Blitz”, which grew into a huge community event that brought our entire football and cheer program together. This event carried on for many years and led to other great events developed and organized by Ed. Organizing “Mahopac Movie Night” as well as the “Mahopac Car Show”. These event ran for a few years as well, bringing the community together as well as raising money for the program. Ed was also instrumental in developing, organizing and facilitating the very first “Indian Pride Night/MSA Night/Bonfire Night”, which still continues to this day. Organizing a bonfire on school grounds is no easy task.
Early on Ed noticed a severe need for lighting improvements to the football practice fields. Seeing how teams were forced to practice in the dark, or volunteer dads were forced to leave work early to attempt to get a practice in, this situation seemed to need addressing. In 2008 Ed started the process for getting field lights installed at the HS practice fields. Running into many road blocks and a lot of red tape, Ed stuck to his convictions. Working with Engineers, district officials, electrical contractors, material suppliers and the State Education Department over the next 3 years, Ed managed to achieve his goal. Raising enough money, volunteers and donations in 2011 the project was completed, twelve 55′ light poles with 54 light heads were permanently installed at the field at no cost to the district. The lights are a great addition to the campus and many sports now utilize the use of the lights for safe and efficient practices.
In coaching of 4 sports for many years, Ed got to know many people in town. Ed gets involved with community leaders within the school district, school board, town official and other local charities. Ed gets involved with local organizers of Community Cares and Relay for Life, two great organizations working towards helping people effected by cancer. Ed has also organized a golf outing fundraising event for a family greatly affected by cancer and also helped organize and develop a memorial community event for a family that lost a child in a tragedy.
Ed’s passion for his community and his endless volunteering depicts his values and integrity. Ed operates his business in the same way, treating employees like family and instilling in them to do the best by their customers.
