Growing up in the 1950s and 60s, Martha Stewart-Arradondo - like many women at the time - didn’t have the chance to compete in organized sports. After moving from foster home to foster home, she also lacked a sense of community and connection. Now as an adult, Stewart-Arradondo has created opportunities for everyone to compete - and connect with others.

Stewart-Arradondo, after finally landing back in Minneapolis where she grew, has tried a variety of activities: softball, racquetball, golf, swimming, and pickleball - just to name a few. When she finds a sport she likes, she dives right in and works to find ways to create a place where others can enjoy the sport with her.

Stewart-Arradondo is currently in a pickleball league at Mega Pickle & Paddle, on the board of Minnesota Masters Swimming, a goal liaison with the Minnesota Golf Association, and president of the Brookview Women’s Thursday golf league. She’s a co-founder of Black Women on Course (BWOC), a golf league for black women, and is working with V3 Sports, a planned fitness and swimming facility in North Minneapolis, to start the Ebony Mermaids - a swim club for black women.

Creating the golf league and the swim club isn’t just a way for Stewart-Arradondo to participate in another sport that she loves. It’s also about creating safe spaces for black women to participate in sports where they haven’t traditionally been allowed access. For many years, African Americans weren’t allowed on golf courses or in swimming pools across the United States, and Stewart-Arradondo is trying to help more people of color get involved in sports where they are still underrepresented.

BWOC was created 13 years ago to give women of color a space to learn and practice golf. The league currently hosts women between the ages of 30 and 80 with a variety of skill levels and knowledge of the game. Not only does BWOC give them a place to compete, it also opens up business opportunities for the women to join their business partners or clients on the golf course - something they may not have been comfortable with prior to joining the league.

Stewart-Arradondo didn’t start swimming until later in life as a way to stay healthy. She joined Minnesota Masters Swimming and started competing, and she also became a certified swim instructor to help other adults learn to swim. Ebony Mermaids is currently in the planning stages, but, as with BWOC, Stewart-Arradondo is excited to give adults of color a safe place to learn how to swim - something they may have never had the opportunity to do, or something they may have been afraid to do if they didn’t grow up around the water.

Professionally, Stewart-Arradondo started the Arradondo Planning Group, and has worked as a corporate meeting planner for 25 years. By combining her skills to organize people and events and her love of competition and trying new things, Stewart-Arradondo has created spaces for women of color to learn and compete - and built a safe, supportive community to support those women through all stages of their competitive journeys.