UBCO held its first Motionball Marathon of Sport this Sunday, Oct. 20 on campus, where students teamed up with local Special Olympic athletes and participated in a variety of sports. 

Aside from having fun, Motionball aims to raise money to support the Special Olympics Canada Foundation.

Vernon cross country skier Justin Sigal, who fell in love with the sport thanks to his parents, says he is grateful for all the money raised.

“We can do a lot of things with that money, so it’s really appreciated.”

Sigal represented Canada at the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria and is happy to get active with his local athletes.

“Lots of friendship and lots of sweat,” he said. 

Motionball is an event held in cities all across Canada, but this is the first one held at a university on the west coast.

“I played at the Kelowna event last year," says event co-ordinator Neema Maenpaa. "It was the first time I played at Motionball and I was super inspired, so I was like I’m going to start building a student team and have an event here."

Committee member Maddy Laranjo has a special connection with the cause.

“My sister has Down syndrome and I’ve grown up with that," says Laranjo. "When I was in my youth, in high school I got involved with Special Olympics coaching. I just know how incredible that was to me and how it impacted my life, so I wanted to share that experience with other people, so getting more involved through my university career and with the school was very important to me. I just want other people to feel that as well.

“Whether it’s Motionball, whether it’s Special Olympics sports - it’s always happening all throughout the year there are different sports. You don’t even need to have any knowledge in it, you just have to go out and be a leader and have fun with the athletes, so it’s pretty incredible.”

Kelowna hosted its own event for all residents to participate in this past September and raised $140,000. UBCO added to the total on Sunday, raising a total net of $10,826.

For more information visit www.motionball.com.