LIer Tara Belinsky helps Giants connect to their communities

Tara Belinsky’s job is many things. One thing it is not: boring.

“There’s no such thing as boring,” she said. “It’s not like you’re sitting at a desk every single day for all hours getting a reminder to stand up. I don’t get those reminders.

“We are standing up and moving.”

Such is professional life for the Giants’ community relations and youth football manager and her colleagues, who handle the organization’s multifaceted outreach efforts.

“Pretty much everything external, outside the building, is something that we have a hand in, which is awesome,” said Belinsky, 29, who grew up in Manhasset.

The Giants’ Community & Corporate Relations department is headed by Allison Stangeby, who established it in the early 1990s, and it handles “a little bit of everything,” as Belinsky put it.

When you see Giants personnel welcoming groups to training camp practices, those are Belinsky and her colleagues out there with them.

Same goes for oversized donation checks being handed out on game days and community appearances by players on Tuesday off days during the season, Women’s Club events and much more.

A big part of the job is helping coaches and players with causes they care about. One of the groups visiting camp recently was from offensive tackle Andrew Thomas’ foundation.

“We get to know what they’re passionate about outside the game of football,” Belinsky said, “and are able to connect them with causes or events that are something where they would take away just as much as the people who are showing up to see them.”

The Giants donate 300 to 400 items a month to fundraising events. They provide equipment grants. They coordinate league-wide initiatives such as the “My Cleats My Cause” program.

“When we are working and there are long hours or we’re working weekends, I’m working on a Sunday because I’m working at an NFL football game,” Belinsky said.

“And during the offseason we’re working on a weekend because as an organization, as a department, we’re working to grow the game of girls flag football.

“So it puts things into perspective where there are a lot of hours, there is a lot of work being done, but the purpose of it is so important and the outcome of it is even more important.”

“Tara’s energy, compassion and love for our community have made her an instrumental part of not only our community relations department but organization as a whole,” Stangeby said. “Her dedication to the NYPD initiatives has taken it from just an idea to fulfilling a legacy project. Her ability to build relationships and support those in our Giants offices all lead to her being an exceptional teammate. She is a true Pro Bowler.”

Belinsky was a multisport athlete at Manhasset High School and won a state championship in the shot put in 2013. She later was a shot putter at Connecticut and the University at Albany, where she set school records in the late 2010s. Her personal best is 16.32 meters, or about 53 1⁄2 feet.

She grew up in an athletic family with three siblings and said her parents, Larry and Lisa, stressed after-school activities.

“My dad won’t be upset with me saying this: My mom is the athlete in the family,” Tara said. “Everyone knows it.”

Larry did help make Belinsky a lifelong Giants fan. As a young child, she would ask for trips to training camp in Albany as a birthday present, “not realizing that 9-year-old me would end up going to college there and graduating and then getting an internship with the team.”

She got that internship right out of college, where she earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in communications, then was hired full-time after a year.

Belinsky lived on Long Island during the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, to be closer to the job.

But most of her immediate and extended family still lives on Long Island, so she visits as often as she can, no matter the logistical challenges.

“That LIE has not changed my entire life,” she said with a laugh.

This is Belinsky’s seventh season with the team.

“It’s very important to ownership,” she said. “It’s something that over 100 years has been very prevalent.

“It’s an opportunity that we as a department have to be able to make sure that regardless of what’s going on on the football field, we will always be there for the community. It’s a dream come true to be able to be in that position.”

About that “on the football field” part, Belinsky and her colleagues have “absolutely no control” over wins and losses. But the standings are separate from the job they do.

“Because of where we sit and what we do, it does help us put things into perspective,” she said. “We’re all working extremely hard to win football games. Some of those games may not go our way. But there are still people who are in need of support or assistance.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.