Charity Update
Sarah Steinhardt’s Welcome Baby
From our November/December 2024 Issue
Welcome Baby is a non-profit organization that provides low-income pregnant women with a care package including all the supplies their newborn will require during the first four weeks of life. Bedford local Sarah Steinhardt founded the charity, together with longtime friend, Juliet Fuisz.
“It seems like nothing could be more fundamental than being able to provide for a newborn’s basic hygiene, but some low-income women can’t afford even the most basic necessities,” Sarah explains, “and our providing a newborn’s necessities for the first month of life often means scarce dollars can be applied to food and shelter. We’ve already delivered thousands and thousands of Welcome Baby care packages across 20 States! We include a month of diapers and wipes, two rash creams, a baby carrier, bottles, pacifiers, a thermometer, grooming kit, two pairs of footed pajamas, two swaddle blankets, four onesies, bath wash, moisturizer, and a baby’s first book. While there are other charities that focus on pre and post-natal care, and a lot of organizations that offer social services for low income families and children, we’re targeted specifically on the acute need for critical necessities in a baby’s first month.”
“There are about 3.6 million babies born in the U.S. each year, and it’s estimated that at least 600,000 of those babies are born into poverty and 1.5 million are born into families paying for that birth with Medicaid, not even taking into account completely uninsured births,” Sarah decries. “And the outsized positive impacts of making sure every baby has the basic necessities for at least a month include the long-term health and well-being of that baby, mother, and family, as well as reducing the burden on our healthcare and social welfare systems that results when babies endure poverty. Study after study shows that even brief periods of poverty in a child’s life - when their basic needs aren’t being met - can have lifelong negative impacts on almost every facet of that child’s life. If we can interrupt part of this poverty cycle in one tangible way, we will see enormous benefits going forward.”
Update
In 2025, Welcome Baby USA partnered with New York City Health & Hospitals to provide 7,300 comprehensive newborn care packages to every baby born at four of the City’s public hospitals, which serve many of New York City’s most vulnerable families. In addition, Welcome Baby expanded operations to include distribution sites in New Haven, CT; Auburn, CA; and throughout Florida, bringing annual total distribution to approximately 7,000 boxes in 2025 and a minimum of 15,000 expected to be delivered in fiscal year 2026-2027.
The next year is anticipated to be a watershed moment for Welcome Baby. A second year of working with NYC H+H and expanding distribution in larger cities is on the horizon. Surveys and studies of the impact of this service have proven its efficacy and positive outcomes, paving the way for potentially wider adoption by states and municipalities.
Of the partnership with NYCH+H, Welcome Baby USA’s Founder and Executive Director, Sarah Gould Steinhardt, says, “We were honored to be chosen by NYC Health + Hospitals as its trusted partner to deliver such critical resources to the city’s underserved families. Our distribution footprint continues to expand from coast to coast and our overarching mission remains the same: to ensure that every baby and every new mother has the basic, critical essentials they need at the beginning of their lives together. No luxuries, just necessities, every baby, every mom.”
More locally, hundreds of Welcome Baby boxes were distributed to underserved families delivering babies and receiving care through Northern Westchester Hospital, Malta House in Norwalk, Family Centers in Greenwich, and Fair Haven Community Health in New Haven, CT. “It’s incredibly fulfilling to support struggling families in the Northern Westchester area. This is my home and I feel so connected to this community,” Sarah shares, “so, while our eyes are always on bringing this service to newborns and new mothers all over the country, it’s critical for me that we start right here at home. The support we’ve received from this community has been so exceptional - and we look forward to growing even more within the neighborhood.”
Absolutely Inspirational: Ali Truwit
From our May/June 2025 Cover Feature
Ali grew up in Darien, attended New Canaan Country School from 6th grade to 10th grade and then St. Luke’s for high school, and swam with the Chelsea Piers Aquatics Club starting when she was 12. Ali was recruited to compete for the Yale Women’s Swimming and Diving Team, and she graduated Yale Class of ‘23, with a B.S., majoring in Cognitive Science with a depth in Behavioral Economics.
The day after her graduation from Yale, Ali headed down to Turks & Caicos for a celebratory vacation, together with her good friend Sophie Pilkinton, who’d been the Captain of the Yale Swim Team and a senior when Ali joined the Yale Swim Team as a freshman, and who had herself just days before graduated from the University of Tennessee Medical School. The next day, the two young ladies jumped off a charter boat to go snorkeling in clear waters in a shallow reef…and a shark attacked.
“...When I got back into the boat, Sophie applied a tourniquet that saved my life. …And from there I was rushed to an island hospital where I spent several long, painful hours waiting for a medivac to Miami for life-saving surgeries. …Then, seven days later - on my 23rd Birthday - I underwent a transtibial amputation at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.”
…In August 2024 - just 15 months after the shark attack - Ali arrived at the Paris Paralympics and won a Silver medal in the women’s 400m freestyle S10 with an American record of 4:31.39, and a Silver medal in the 100m backstroke with another American record of 1:08:59.
Ali has also established Stronger Than You Think as a leading force in providing prosthetics to women and girls in need and raising awareness around the prohibitive costs those in need are confronting, as well as providing support for the Paralympic movement and for water safety programs.
Update
This year, Stronger Than You Think supplied 19 prosthesis grants.
Stronger Than You Think also announced a $400,000 donation for the first-ever Performance Incentive Fund for Team USA Paralympic Swimmers, whereby swimmers who place first, second, third or break world records at key swim meets leading up to the 2028 Paralympic Games will receive financial rewards from Stronger Than You Think to help combat the pay inequity faced by Paralympic athletes.
In May of last year, Ali appeared in the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, shattering that ‘glass ceiling’ for amputees! …And this year, she’s just completed shooting to be included, in back-to- back years, in the 2026 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition!
In September 2025, in support of Stronger Than You Think, Ali raced in the New York City Marathon. She finished with a remarkable time of 4:14, and raised $250,000 for the charity.
Ali has also become a sponsored NIKE athlete!
She’s the subject of an Impakt Partners documentary called Stronger Than You Think, that’s been accepted and played to sold out crowds at a dozen film festivals. The film won the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival in October, Best Documentary at Beaufort Film Festival in February, and Best Documentary at The Garden State Film Festival in March. Bedford & New Canaan Magazine will host the only local screening this fall; tickets are available first- come-first-served on the B&NC Mag website.
And she’s already contracted with St. Martins Press to publish the book she’s writing, titled A Million Little Miracles, to be released in January 2028.
Ali is currently training to make the U.S. Team for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics, and plans to start Harvard Business School immediately thereafter, in September 2028.
And Ali is hosting the second annual STYT Swim- A-Thon at Chelsea Piers on May 31, and invites everyone to join!
There is nothing this young lady can’t do if she sets her mind to it! …She’s absolutely inspirational!
Photos: COLDORWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY