In 2002, After many years of volunteering at events and coaching Special Olympics teams, three brothers decided to take a step further to merge fun, community, fundraising, and volunteerism to launch Motionball. motionball is a national non-profit organization that raises funds through inclusive social and sporting events in cities across Canada. It hosts its annual summer event, “Marathon of Sport,” to support the Special Olympics Canada Foundation.

 

Currently, motionball operates in nineteen cities across Canada, is run actively on 35 University campuses, has donated over $19,000,000 to the Special Olympics Canada Foundation in 2015, and is continually expanding.

 

We connected with the brothers Paul, Mark, and Sean Etherington to learn more about how motionball engages communities with sports and volunteerism.

We launched motionball over 22 years ago with a mission to introduce Canada’s next generation of young Canadian professionals and University students to the Special Olympics movement through integrated social and sporting events while also providing them meaningful leadership opportunities. Our flagship event is called Marathon of Sport, and this event is run on 35 University campuses and in 19 cities across Canada, this event is the main reason we have been able to donate $19,000,000+ to the Special Olympics movement since its inception. 

Our Saturday, June 8th motionball Toronto Marathon of Sport will have 56 teams and 600 Torontonians competing, with over 100 volunteers and 80 Special Olympics athletes recognized as our celebrities for the day.

The objective for the day is to raise $450,000 and enjoy a fun day of sport while promoting inclusion, acceptance, and equal opportunity.

As an events-based organization, the Global Pandemic severely impacted motionball for Special Olympics and the entire Special Olympics movement. Throughout the pandemic and since then, motionball has managed to successfully pivot our offerings to ensure

our model in providing financial stability to the Special Olympics movement continued. Since 2022, motionball is proud to have relaunched nearly all national events, expanded our reach in new cities and on new university campuses, and has almost recovered to pre-pandemic fundraising levels. This recovery has allowed us to re-engage over 40,000 Special Olympics athletes across Canada and continue building on an inclusivity and acceptance movement through integrated sports and social events.

Organizationally, our goal is to reach more Canadians through new and existing events, increase our volunteer base at these events, and recruit participants. We aim to continue to grow as an organization and build a movement of empowered leaders across the Marathon of Sport country who want to make a difference for the Special Olympics by raising funds and awareness in their communities.

We aim to raise $450,000 from this year’s Marathon of Sport. Since 2002, motionball has donated over $19M net to the Special Olympics Canada Foundation.

motionball will continue to look to expand our network to more cities across Canada. We aim to raise more funds and awareness for the Special Olympics movement through the power of inclusive sports and social events.

Motionball for Special Olympics is rooted in the power of inclusivity. We can empower Canadians to become community leaders by hosting integrated sporting and social events. In addition to our national events, our #NoGoodWay campaign runs annually to eliminate the casual and harmful use of the “r-word” in everyday conversation. Using more inclusive language can decrease barriers and create a more inclusive Canada for everyone.

 

You can keep up with Motionball’s activities on their socials and their website.