Sports take over City Park

Photo: Contributed

Hockey was one of the sports played in City Park Saturday.

Hundreds of people ran, jumped, kicked, spiked and threw in City Park Saturday while raising $100,000 for Special Olympics athletes.

The sixth annual Motionball event involved 300 members of the community along with 40 Special Olympic athletes playing a variety of sports in downtown Kelowna.

Each participant fundraised prior to the event, raising a total $100,000, after expenses.

“Sport is a universal thing,” said Donnie Ungaro, event director of Motionball. “It gives them confidence that they just never had.”

Peter Brousseau, one of the Special Olympics athletes participating at Saturday's event, said the day is all about fun.

“I've been pretty active all my life,” Brousseau said. “I like a lot more of the team sports, the team can work together to get better.”

The Kelowna event is one of 20 events across the country. Ungaro says in the 17 years Motionball has been running, they've raised over $8 million for Special Olympics athletes. They've raised over $320,000 in Kelowna alone.

“The city's just really embraced it,” Ungaro said.

Sports included basketball, soccer, football, human foosball, ultimate frisbee, volleyball and many others