Registration open for Motionball Caledon 2023 benefiting Special Olympics

June 29, 2023 · 0 Comments

Full day of sports fun will benefit Special Olympics

By Zachary Roman

Residents looking for a fun day of sports action can check out this year’s Motionball Caledon event.

Motionball Caledon is being held on September 16 at Edelweiss Park in Bolton and it will be a day of athletic competition alongside Special Olympics athletes from Caledon.

Those interested in participating can register as a team captain, then recruit up to ten people to play on their team. On the day of the event, each team will be paired with one or two Caledon Special Olympics athletes to play games like soccer, football, ultimate frisbee, bocce, and bench ball.

To register, become a sponsor, volunteer, or donate, those interested can visit motionball.com/caledon to get started.

Individual and corporate teams are welcome at the event, and corporations can go one step further by becoming event sponsors, too. Volunteers at Motionball Caledon will be helping with things like registration and refereeing.

Motionball is a national non-profit that raises funds and awareness for Special Olympics through inclusive social and sporting events.

Rob Ricciardi is the co-director of Motionball Caledon this year alongside decorated local Special Olympics athlete Jason Scorcia.

Ricciardi explained this year’s event will be the second Motionball event to be held in Caledon, and he and his team are looking to expand on the success of the inaugural event held in 2022.

He said growing the event each year will bring more awareness and funding to local Special Olympics athletes, which is what it’s all about.

Quick to thank his co-director and the committee members that help plan Motionball Caledon, Ricciardi said the event just couldn’t happen without all their hard work.

“The unsung heroes are the reason this got going,” said Ricciardi.

He explained that participants will get to play a wide variety of sports during the day of the event, and said the more teams that register the more sports can be added to the event. This all contributes to making the day as fun as possible for athletes.

The fun doesn’t begin and end on the playing field though.

“Last year, we had a big opening ceremony… we made a tunnel and all the athletes ran through the tunnel with everyone cheering them on to get the day going,” said Ricciardi. “Then we also do a big afterparty for everybody, just to show our appreciation for the people that came out and supported the event.”

Ricciardi got involved volunteering with Motionball Caledon last year and said it’s been a blessing.

“I love it, it’s so much fun. I get to spend so much time with Jason, he’s awesome,” said Ricciardi. “He’s a superstar, he gets people involved, he goes out and gets teams, he draws everybody to the website. (motionball.com/Caledon) Without Jason we wouldn’t be able to put this on.”

Ricciardi said the Motionball website is set up to make things as easy as possible for participants. He said it even has tools that help people fundraise.

“Every little bit that a team fundraises helps,” said Ricciardi. “Have fun with it — if you have fun with the fundraising part, you’d be surprised how much you can get done.”

Ricciardi is confident there will be a great turnout for this year’s event and is looking forward to a day of fun with the community.