SV unified bocce hosts ‘cool’ polar pop fundraiser
Hundreds of Seneca Valley students made a splash for their school’s unified bocce team, as well as Special Olympics Pennsylvania, with water balloons.
Seneca Valley’s unified bocce team held their fifth annual polar pop fundraiser on the secondary campus on Friday, March 7.
The district said the fundraiser contributes directly to the Pittsburgh Polar Plunge, an event that raises funds and awareness for Special Olympics Pennsylvania. Proceeds from the event help provide year-round sports-specific training and competition for thousands of athletes with intellectual disabilities, including the Seneca Valley Bocce Team.
Hundreds of students from the intermediate and senior high schools, as well as some teachers and school administrators, participated in the event over the course of the school day.
As part of the event, members of the bocce team popped ice-cold water balloons over participants’ heads. Participants did this “in support of school-wide inclusion and equality at Seneca Valley,” according to the district.
Throughout the day, students from grades 9-12 participated in the polar pop, including entire classrooms, school organizations and athletic teams at Seneca Valley. Even some teachers and school teachers got drenched by popped water balloons in support of the school’s unified bocce team.
In past years, the bocce team has raised over $15,000. The unified bocce team’s coach, Katie Smolter, said she was hoping to reach $20,000 this year.
Smolter said the team got the idea from Special Olympics Pennsylvania, who holds an annual polar plunge event that helps raise money.
”We decided during the COVID year to take things into our own hands, thinking about what could we do here at Seneca Valley. And so Special Olympics gave the idea of the polar pop, with popping the water balloon above your head. We were fortunate enough that our administration, staff and students have kind of embraced it from year one. So in year five, you can kind of see a tradition with a lot of our clubs, sports teams in participating,“ Smolter said.
Smolter said the unified bocce program just finished its eighth season at Seneca Valley. It is a program with Special Olympics that works with students with and without disabilities to participate in sports with their peers. Unified bocce is also a PIAA sport.
“The Special Olympics, it’s been great that we’ve had this partnership now for six years, and how it’s grown from six teams and now it’s over 200 schools participating, and then to have inclusion week be capped off by this, it makes it so much fun, the kids love it,” Eric DiTullio, Seneca Valley’s school board president, said after being polar popped.
The weather early Friday afternoon was sunny and in the mid-40’s, but the temperature had not stopped students from participating.
Smolter said that over the course of past five years, the fundraiser has continued to get bigger, with more students participating and supporting the bocce team.
“Even though it’s cold, the kids have made it a tradition, and it get’s bigger and bigger every year,” Smolter said.
Students had been participating since 9 a.m., when the temperature was in the 30’s. Luckily it was sunny this year, but there have been past years where the fundraiser has been held in grayer, gloomier weather.
The students turned out for their classmates anyways.
“I enjoy how I can see my classmates get super happy. If I’ve seen them in school this week, they’ve always been saying they can’t wait for Friday, and it gives them something to look forward to. It’s a great way to get everyone together,” Jordan Lauer, a student at the senior high school, said.
