Bocce will soon be booming across the islands of the Florida Keys thanks to the recent arrival of eight high-quality portable bocce courts purchased by Special Olympics Florida.

The revolutionary courts, developed by Packaworld International, will be provided to schools in the archipelago so they can run school-based and inter-school unified bocce competitions for students. Generous grants from the Ocean Reef Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys helped make the purchase possible.

“The portable courts allow us to offer the sport of bocce to a wider range of individuals with disabilities and also provide inclusive opportunities for those without disabilities," said Ruth Coleman from Special Olympics Florida.

Dozens of children and young people with vision impairments are now enjoying the thrill of playing goalball with top-quality goals, thanks to the arrival of portable Goalball Packagoals in Pennsylvania.   

The portable goals from Packaworld were used by Envision Blind Sports for the first time at its 2022 summer camp, held at Penn State University for Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI) children between ages 5 and 18.

Envision Blind Sports Executive Director Wendy Fagan said the children and young people taking part in the camp and goalball sessions run since have enjoyed playing with proper goals instead of cones or goals made of unwieldy PVC pipe.

"I’ve been coaching for 30 years, and I’ve never been this affected by a piece of sports equipment before."

When the first bocce balls of this year’s Special Olympics NZ National Summer Games were thrown by athletes in Hamilton earlier this month, it signified something of a milestone for the portable Packabocce courts being used.

This year was the first calendar year the portable courts have appeared at National or State Games in three separate continents, following their use at multiple major events in the USA and Europe.

New Zealand’s premier Special Olympics event was hosted at Claudelands Event Centre and attended by around 1,000 athletes. Bocce is one of 10 different sports included in New Zealand’s National Summer Games programme and this year’s bocce athletes competed in both doubles and teams events.

Students from across Minnesota mixed and mingled on portable bocce courts from Packaworld at the Minnesota Unified Bocce State Tournament earlier this month.
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M Health Fairview Sports Center in Woodbury rolled out some of the 31 Packabocce courts owned by Special Olympics Minnesota to host more than 140 students from 17 schools at the tournament.

Katie Howlett from Special Olympics Minnesota said the event was “fantastic” and she was impressed with the convenience of the inflatable courts.

“Everyone loved using the Packbocce courts, particularly the event managers, because they were just so easy to move around and set up.”

A youth camp in Michigan has been bringing the high-octane sport of goalball to students who are Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI), with a little help from Packaworld’s portable goalball goals and some star guests from Team USA.

Camp Tuhsmeheta in Greenville recently used two new Goalball Packagoals from Packaworld to run a youth recreation clinic and host the Michigan Blind Athletic Association (MBAA) goalball tournament.

The camp is run by the Michigan Department of Education - Incidence Outreach to cater for students who are BVI, or Deaf/Hard of Hearing, as well as other youth education groups.

Anticipation was high as Gibraltar faced off against the Isle of Man at the start of the Special Olympics Gibraltar National Games 2022.

The competition rolled into action at the Bayside Sports Complex on 22 September after a three year delay due to Covid, with two portable Packaworld’s Packabocce courts setting the stage for an international bocce battle.

This year’s National Games were the first in Gibraltar to feature bocce – a sport for people of all abilities that has become the fourth most popular sport in Special Olympics programmes globally.

Special Olympics Gibraltar President and CEO Annie Risso said the bocce competition had been a success for athletes and organisers, who commented on the “high quality” playing experience offered by the courts, as well as their ease of setup.