motionball 2014: Young Professionals, Carmen Electra and the End of the “R Word”

On February 7th, motionball is back with a point to prove. Despite some minor frustrations at last year’s event (thanks, in part, to a good old Canadian snowstorm), motionball remains Toronto’s number one charity gala for young professionals (YPs). In just nine days, motionball ThreeSixtyFive Gala presented by AIR MILES Canada takes over the Liberty Grand again for its 13th annual gala. Highlights include a special performance by co-host Carmen Electra, live performances by Skratch Bastid, Running Red Lights, DJ Efsharp, DJ Dopey & DJ Don Mescal, the always popular Under Armour Fashion Show, a live art performance, and 100 silent auction prizes including a travel package for two to the Azores Islands valued at $10,000. Oh, and did we mention that Notable.ca just became the national media sponsor?

motionball always attracts the city’s finest, most stylish young professionals and charity circuit regulars for an evening of networking, mingling, dancing and a good cause. motionball is a non-profit organization that benefits the Special Olympics Canada Foundation (SOCF), a charity whose objective is to provide funding for athlete and volunteer recruitment and training for each provincial and territorial chapter through a series of nationwide sporting and social events, including the motionball galas. At the galas, guests get to mingle directly with the athletes they support.

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motionball is the brainchild of best friends and brothers Paul, Mark and Sean Etherington, who hold a life-long attachment to the Special Olympics Canada. Since childhood, the Etherington brothers have volunteered at fundraising events organized and executed by their parents, who co-founded the Sports Celebrities Festival, an organization that has raised over $25 million for Special Olympics Canada since 1983. We caught up with Paul Etherington to hear first-hand about what we can expect from motionball ThreeSixtyFive Gala…

What is the idea behind this year’s ThreeSixtyFive theme?
The thinking behind that is that motionball is not just one night, one event or one party. This is the kickoff to our motionball season; we are running 15 annual events across Canada and we like to think of ourselves as a way of life and a style of thinking. We want people to be thinking of the Special Olympics community year-round.

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What can we expect from this year’s Toronto motionball?
We admittedly had some frustrations last year with the weather and the venue. Because of the snow, some employees could not make it in, so they were short staffed. Our first priority was fixing any issues because we always pride ourselves in giving good value to our guests. While we had 2000 really happy partygoers last year, we probably had 150 who had some issues – whether it was outside, or with coat check, or with getting a quick drink. We wanted to fix that. With this frigid weather we are having, we have moved registration into one full ballroom so that nobody has to be waiting outside, and have quadrupled our coat check staff, so we are going to have a really quick entry. At the end of the day, we want people to come in and start to enjoy themselves immediately. We have also doubled bar staff. We know what type of crowd comes out and they are looking to have some fun; we want to make sure that if they want a drink, they can get it quickly. This year, we are also providing private servers to all of our sponsor booths to elevate the experience of our sponsors

What will we see in terms of entertainment?
For entertainment, variety was a key component last year and the crowd seem to like that, so this year we have four DJs, three live bands, a fashion show, and my co-host Carmen Electra is performing. Of course, there is also the usual great food, some mixology bars, and we are also bringing in some gourmet doughnut stations, which is new. As usual, we are also doing the silent auction, which is a big part of our fundraising efforts and we have over 100 great items, which we are really excited about.

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You just announced the Yellow Card campaign; can you tell us a little about that?
The Yellow Card campaign is something that motionball has been working on for the last six months and we are officially unveiling it at the gala. This is going to be motionball’s most ambitious initiative to date – by far. It takes us out of the event space, where our primary focus has always been fundraising, and now moves us into realm of social awareness and positive behavioural change. The goal of the Yellow Card campaign is to ultimately end the use if the “r word,” that word being retard or retarded. Through a variety of initiatives, both online and off, we will to try to eliminate this use. The program boils down to one simple truth, and that is that there is no positive way, in our opinion, to use the “r word.” It is a hurtful word; it is incredibly offensive to the intellectually disabled community, those being our beneficiaries. When you hear their stories, which we have, of physical and verbal bullying based around that word, it becomes very clear to us the necessity of the campaign. We are going to be looking to engage motionball as well as other Canadian young professionals to join us, and the slogan is raise your hand. Stop using the word and become ambassadors. We will officially unveil this campaign at the gala with some fun, interactive stations where guests can sign up to become ambassadors, and it is something that we are really going to launch later in the year across Canada at events and through social media. Our presenting sponsor, Air Miles, who have been an incredible sponsor, has agreed to raise their hand and come on board with us to give us expertise in the digital marketing realm and allow us to really grow this thing across Canada. We are excited for the effect this campaign will have.

What was the inspiration in getting Carmen Electra involved?
We are using a company called Cloud Empire, who are in the business of finding talent, celebrities and entertainment. I use them for my Pink Party. They came to me with a list of potential individuals who would be interested in getting involved and she was kind of top on the list. She is obviously someone who is a beautiful lady, but also talented and is launching a new album, so it was a great fit for her to be in town and to promote her new album while supporting the cause. We think it will be a huge hit.

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Can we expect to see any other celebs?
Absolutely, there will be some familiar faces. I don’t know the guest list quite yet, but the usual local celebrities usually make an appearance. The Leafs are not playing that night, so we are hoping to get some of them out as well; Jake Gardner is a supporter of the Special Olympics and has been invited, as has the rest of the team. The Argos always come out.

How much do you hope to raise?
The event objective is to raise a minimum of $250,000 net. We are interested to see the success of some of these new initiatives as well. For example, there is an opportunity for our guests through another activation site to sponsor an Ontario athlete who is going to the national games in Vancouver, and we are also crowd fundraising for the first time, asking our crowd to use a number and text motionball to make an immediate $10 donation.

What are some silent auction items that we should be most excited about? Do you have any favourites?
Yeah, we have some great ones. If you are a tennis player, we have the chance to play and have a session with Daniel Nestor. If you are a squash player, you have the chance to take a lesson from Jonathan Power, who is the world’s number one squash player; we have trips to Vegas, New York City and Mykonos; we have some incredible sports memorabilia with the Olympics happening. Actually, the opening ceremonies are that same day… we have signed jerseys from Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, and a bunch of other athletes. Whether it’s spas, hotel stays, or restaurant certificates, we seem to have those as well. We also have a Keith Richards signed guitar, which is kind of cool. There is definitely variety for everyone.

What, in your opinion, makes a good event?
It starts with the crowd. I think that we have been blessed to have a great following very similar to the Notable.ca audience, those young professionals who are driven, are busy at work but socially responsible, and when you get that mix out to an event like this, you are bound to have a good time.

Get your motionball tickets now; we aren’t lying when we tell you that they will sell out!

#LYNL | (Live Your Notable Life)

All images from: motionball facebook

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