Two guys from the 518.

Chris Mastantuono

Chris moved to the 518 from Long Island a little over twelve years ago with a plan to build a business and a better future for his family. From the start, this place embraced him. Customers, neighbors, employees, and other local owners are the reason that plan turned into something real. He owns The Car Shoppe, Requalify 360 and 518 Tow.

Today Chris and his family call the Capital Region home. As a husband, a father, and a local business owner, he has seen up close what this community does for a family that needs it.

He met Ryan in his gym a couple of years back, and Ryan put the bug in his ear about giving back. They sponsored Thanksgiving families together, then more, then 600 of them. 518 Great is what came out of it.

Every event, every partnership, every dollar raised is an investment in this area code. The goal is that more families get the same shot at belonging that his did.

Ryan Holderman

Ryan was born and raised in Glens Falls. His parents ran a restaurant, Talk of the Town, so he grew up on pizza and chicken fingers and around people who worked for themselves. He was an athlete through high school and college, got into training in New York City for four years, learned the good and the bad of the industry, and brought it home.

His first gym was 2,700 square feet in South Glens Falls. Twelve years later THE GYM occupies 26,000 square feet in the Aviation Mall. What started as a training facility turned into something else: a place where people of every age show up to build confidence, make friends, and get each other through hard stretches. Ryan has always thought fitness was mostly a pretext. The real product is a room where people feel welcome. The expression at the gym is: you good, human.

That philosophy left the building a long time ago. Youth athletic programs, mentorship, community events, charitable drives, partnerships with other local businesses. Sports taught Ryan discipline, resilience, and the habit of showing up for other people, and he has spent his career handing that back to the next set of kids.

518 Great came out of watching two things at once: how generous this region is, and how many local families are quietly struggling anyway. Ryan once carried a box of food into a house and asked where to put it. On the floor, they said. That is where we eat. He went back the next year and nothing had changed.

School supplies. Experiences a kid remembers. A family carried through a bad year. Somebody finding out their community noticed. Every dollar raised is an investment in the people who live in the 518.

His hope is plain: a community where every child feels supported, no family feels alone, and the next generation grows up thinking this is just what you do.