Boston College football and Beautiful Lives Project host field day for people with disabilities
NEWTON - The Beautiful Lives Project held its second annual field day with Boston College football on Wednesday.
The Beautiful Lives Project promotes inclusion through sports for children and adults with disabilities.
"I ran and kicked it and then they did the MVP thing. I was like whaaat?'" said Matthew, a 13 year-old middle schooler who's a part of the Beautiful Lives Project. The five-year-old organization focuses on inclusion through sports.
"We help those with disabilities live out dreams that they never thought they could do. Looking at the field we couldn't be prouder," said the group's executive director Tony Gionfriddo. He said he was excited to see Boston College players putting his crew through their paces on the football field while having some fun too.
"The tackling, the throwing. It's really fun, you get to do practice drills with them and it's really fun," said Matthew, who was at the event with his dad Aaron, both proud to be a part of the Beautiful Lives Project pushing players past their limits.
"It's super important just to make sure the kids are included in these kind of activities. It's so great to see them achieve something and feel that level of happiness when they do it," said Aaron Mistretta.
And they're not the only ones benefitting from the experience.
"Sometimes we lose sight of how fortunate we are to be able to run and do the things we do," said senior wide receiver Dino Tomlin, hoping to take that lesson into the season as the team gets ready for the year ahead.
"I hope some of my teammates look at this and realize football is just a game and we should have fun playing it," said Tomlin.
