‘Have fun with everybody’: Special Olympians and community join together for Motionball

Special Olympians and local athletes joined in London to participate in Motionball.

It’s a day of competing, smiling, dancing, and laughing.

The annual Motionball day was back in London on Saturday with dozens of Special Olympians joining forces with community members for a day of fun.

“It’s so fun is because the Special Olympic athletes have come out here and they want to have some fun with a bunch of students from Western or all around that want to play Motionball,” said Sara Albers, a London Special Olympic athlete.

“We also wanted to help with fundraising. We might use the money for tournaments and uniforms, but we also might use it for our travel. In order to get to the games, we have to travel and that costs money too.”

Motionball was founded by Paul Etherington and his brothers 24 years ago.

“It’s a volunteer movement,” said Etherington.

“That’s what’s so beautiful about it. We’ve got over 100 event directors across Canada who were taking time out of their busy schedules to support their community.”

From games like Tic Tac Toe relay, to basketball, and giant pong, they are games which can be competitive, but also easy for the Special Olympians.

“It’s an incredible day of integration and celebration,” said Etherington.

“We’re going to raise over $25,000 for the Special Olympics community. What’s exciting is this is just one of 50 events across Canada. We’re in 18 cities. We’re on 35 university campuses. Motionball has donated over $20 million. And the most important thing of our movement is that integration with our Special Olympic athletes and our event participants.”

The most exciting part of the day is to see the interaction between community members and athletes.

“Special Olympics is important for everybody, including people with disabilities,” said Albers.

“It’s always important and we are always welcoming new athletes or new friends. It is also having fun with people you do not know. To just show them what you have and teach them.”

With a slogan of ‘Educate, Integrate and Celebrate’, the idea is just to introduce Special Olympics and athletes to those who may not know much about the movement.

“Maybe we might turn a few heads and get some people involved to volunteer for the movement down the road,” said Etherington.