The Goal Of Flexible IT's Hauppauge Ice Hockey Rink? Giving Back To The Community.

HAUPPAUGE, NY — One of Hauppauge's best hidden secrets is an ice hockey rink owned by Flexible IT, a technological consulting and advising servicer for small businesses.

Flexible Arena is located behind the business, at 290 Motor Parkway, Hauppauge. Flexible IT completely funds the rink, its maintenance, and its staffing, said Zach Belous, manager of the ice rink and who also works in business development for Flexible IT.

What makes Flexible Arena stand out is its availability: The rink is open to all and free for all as long as they sign up with an organization.

Seth Belous, Zach's father, and Joseph Saggio, who co-founded Flexible IT, want the rink to serve as an opportunity to give back to the community, with a focus on children and first responders. Those who want to request use of the rink must be part of an organization, whether it's a youth sports organization, school team or a police or fire department, Zach explained.

Interested parties can sign up on the Flexible Arena website or through the Instagram page.

"The main goal of the rink is to give back to the community — to young children who love playing hockey and first responders who love playing hockey," Zach told Patch.

The rink is open to children who want to work on their hockey skills, practice or play games. Many first responders have a hockey team at their station, Zach said. First responders who play in leagues throughout Long Island and New York City have a place to practice for free at Flexible Arena, he said.

The arena also hosts pickup hockey games for adults on weeknights and weekends, free of charge.

"Compared to another normal running rink, it's usually about $30 to go down and do something like that," Zach said. "We run it two times a week for free ... We meet people back there and we network with people back there on a friend level and a business level."

Zach's sister, Jordan, runs a childhood cancer charity named Whip Pediatric Cancer. Zach said he hopes the rink can serve as a platform to fundraise for Whip Pediatric Cancer, as well as causes benefitting first responders.

First responders expressed interest in organizing a tournament that would benefit Whip Pediatric Cancer. Zach suggested hosting an additional fundraiser for police departments and firehouses.

Another idea Zach had was hosting a hockey jamboree for children 10 and younger, where all money raised would go to Jordan's charity.

"We have a poster up in the rink that goes to Whip Pediatric Cancer's site so that they can read more about Whip," Zach said. "The whole goal of the entire rink is to give money back to either Whip or first responders around the community."

Click here to read a Q&A with Whip Pediatric Cancer founder Jordan Belous.

Seth Belous and Joseph Saggio met playing collegiate ice hockey at Stony Brook University. They founded Flexible IT together more than 40 years ago.

"The rink has been a dream of theirs; not necessarily a goal," Zach said. "Now it's something that kind of came into fruition the past couple of years. Their goal with the rink is not to have it as a public moneymaker."

Flexible Arena opened in 2020 during the heart of the coronavirus pandemic. It started as an outdoor, outside air rink, but the company had trouble picking up traction on it because of natural causes like weather, rain, snow and sunlight, Zach explained.

Last winter, the Flexible IT team added a roof that allows them to open the arena full-time during the colder weather months.

"This is the first year we've been able to run it full time," Zach said. "The rink allows us to do it rain or shine. We have no worries on a day-to-day basis if we're going to be able to allow people to come or not. We're going pretty steadily now."

The arena hosts five ice blocks a day where teams of all age groups from across Long Island can request use of the rink.