The 8th year of “Bowl of a Goal,” presented by Arbella Insurance, was successful! It was hosted by Mike “Sarge” Riley, who is the voice announcer at Gillette Stadium for Patriots and Revolution games. There was music by DJ Chris Roxx, a silent auction, and raffle items that included a signed David Ortiz baseball, Drake Maye autographed full size helmet, and a signed Revolution jersey by the whole team. These items were one of the ways to raise money for Special Olympics Massachusetts at the event.
President of the New England Revolution, Brian Bilello explained that this event is one of the “best nights of the year” for the Revolution. The team is very grateful to help out the Special Olympics MA program. He explained, “It is a great program… We play on field at Gillette. We usually win, but our team is awesome. This night and program is all about being Unified and working together…I can’t think of a better partner than Special Olympics.”
When Mary Beth, Special Olympic Massachusetts President & CEO, spoke, she explained how the New England Revolution helps Special Olympics programs. She mentioned, “Every dollar you are raising supports our program of 19,000 individuals in Special Olympics Massachusetts in 23 sports. Our youngest athlete is 2 and oldest is 87; but we couldn’t do it without our partners like the New England Revolution and Arbella.” This event was very important for Special Olympics, people were not just bowling or dancing, they were also raising money. On that night, Bowl for a Goal raised $100,000 (all time it has raised $700,000).
There were two special guests: Liam Wise who is a Special Olympics athlete and Remy St. Germain, a Unified Partner on the Unified New England Revolution team. First, Remy explained his journey at the Unified All Star Game in Austin, Texas, which they needed to wake up at 5 AM for! Remy started his career in Special Olympics as a 16 year old boy with braces; but today he is a 19 year old without braces. Before he joined Special Olympics, he was lonely and barely had friends.
However, he joined this program, and now he has a lot of support and created a lot of friends. He witnessed so many athletes in Special Olympics Massachusetts conquer their dreams, including running the Boston Marathon. Also, they taught him what it means to “be himself and to be included.” Remy became a stronger person with a lot of support from the Revs team.
“This team gave me space to figure out who I was,” he said.
Liam also talked about his experience in Austin for the Unified All Star Soccer game, where he represented the New England Revolution Unified Team. It was great week of soccer. He made a lot of friendships on Team East. There were two teams for the Unified All Star Match: East vs West soccer teams. Liam said, “we will be friends forever.”
“Bowl for a Goal” helps keep in touch with players like Andrew Farrell, who is the Unified Revolution captain, according to Mary Beth. She said a special shout out to Andrew Farrell who is a Special Olympics Ambassador and has been involved at the beginning of this Unified program. “Thank you Andrew for everything you've done,” she said.
The event is very important for many reasons: to raise money for Special Olympics, to support athletes who can compete, and to keep in touch with major sports partners like the Revolution that helps Special Olympics.
Jess Lappin is a member of the Special Olympics MA Content Squad. The mission of Special Olympics MA Athlete Leadership is to empower athletes to develop communication skills and utilize their voices to assume meaningful leadership roles. As members of the Content Squad, athlete leaders contribute to Special Olympics MA story-telling through interviews, photos, video creation, and more.
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