The TRU Motionball Marathon of Sport organization is thanking donors for their generous support following a record-breaking donation goal this year.
Motionball Marathon of Sport is a national nonprofit organization that raises funds and awareness for the Special Olympics. The fundraiser runs in 18 cities across Canada, with Kamloops being among them. Allie Shiyuk, a fourth-year defender from women’s soccer and Thomas Olsen, a fourth-year forward from men’s basketball, are on the 2024-25 executive committee for Motionball.
“Motionball is a university program created to help students engage in this movement,” Shiyuk said. “It’s something that’s really popular out east. It brings university students together and [we] participate in the Marathon of Sport, as well as some other events throughout the year that [also] are fundraising [events and bring people together and engage them with the local Special Olympics community.”
One of those events is the No Good Way Day, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year.
“One of our [other] big events is No Good Way Day,” Olsen said. “Basically, it’s to promote getting rid of the ‘R word’ [from] people’s vocabulary. A lot of what we do is [obviously meant] to raise money while also spreading awareness that these programs exist and they are an important part of our society [that] we need to support.”
Motionball started its journey at TRU in 2019 with Olivia McLennan, who brought it to Kamloops. Shiyuk and Olsen reflect on their journey with the movement.
“I became involved in my second year [in 2022],” Shiyuk said. “One of the girls in my soccer team was on the executive committee; she talked about Motionball, and I thought that it was a great initiative. I was a participant and a team captain, so I gathered my soccer teammates, and we all signed up. It was a fantastic day. I really wanted to be part of the executive committee. So I reached out and then became part [of the committee] the year after, and then I took the role of event director with Thomas and Ella [Colistro] this year.”
“I came in my first year,” Olsen said. “One of my vets from the [basketball] team was also on the executive committee and asked me to come in and be a team captain. Similarly to Allie, I developed a passion for that sort of thing. [It’s] super fun, engaging, and you see the value of a program like that. Three years later, I’m an event director with an awesome crew.”
Shiyuk and Olsen have been part of the organization for the last three years. They shared their memorable moment from the past.
“We always do a fun entrance for the special Olympics athletes where we announce their names and then they get to run out of a tunnel that our participants create,” Shiyuk said. “So I was standing at the end of the tunnel and hearing the Special Olympics athletes’ names announced, and then watching them run out of the tunnel and seeing the expressions on their faces. That was a pretty cool moment.”
“I think for me, just the little moments,” Olsen said. “You see a bunch of little moments throughout the marathon of sport, like when a special athlete scores a goal or they hit a basket. You just see the joy that they feel and it’s contagious within everyone playing in that sport. Those [little] moments for me build up into an awesome event and experience.”
“What makes us unique is that we are a group of students and a lot of us are WolfPack athletes,” Shiyuk said. “We’ve personally experienced how amazing sport could be [thanks to] the relationships it allows you to build and the sense of belonging you get from playing. We want to make sure that everybody has access to that.”
“With a lot of charities, you see photos and put your money towards it,” Olsen said. “Whereas in Marathon of Sport, you’re experiencing it first-hand. You get to play the sport and participate in the event with the Special Olympics athletes. The connection you build, the memories you foster, that itself spreads awareness. It shows how significant sports are and how important it is to us to support that initiative. So I think when you look at other charities, the connection and the memories and the experience that you build with ours really separates us and makes it special and actually helps us get more fundraising and charity and also a retention of people that joined as we do it year in and year out.”
This year, they gathered $17,000 in donations with around 100 participants. The event directors talked about next year’s goals and plans.
“I think that growing the brand of Motionball Kamloops is something that we would love to work towards,” Shiyuk said. “Getting more university students involved, spreading awareness for what motionball is. I know that there are a lot of people on campus who have never heard of it before. So, continuing to gain that recognition would be amazing. Also looking to engage more businesses and organizations as well. We’re always in contact with them a lot in terms of sponsorships.”
“I think we had a pretty big financial goal this year of $15,000,” Olsen said. “Two years ago, I think we [raised] $11,000. Last year we [raised] $13,000. This year, getting $17,000 was amazing. We definitely want to up our financial goal. I think we could do a better job of reaching out beyond TRU. Those will probably be the two main goals next year.”