Bocce balls—as well as some good-natured trash talk—were tossed around the courts at C. E. Grose Park Sunday.
Under sunny skies, the Club Capri team took top honours as champions of Thorold's first Intergenerational Bocce tournament.
The brainstorm of Diana D’Intino, who partnered with Thorold’s Age-Friendly committee, the event was a successful, fun, friendly first that’s set to become an annual, with plans already in the works for next year, said D’Intino.
Ten teams took part, and members voted for the Team Spirit Award, which Hayden Ludlum accepted on behalf of the winning 'Frankie’s Team,' so chosen because Hayden nobly filled in on Frankie’s team when four-year-old Frank Iorio “got too tired.”
Players ranged in age from four-year-old Frankie to 89-year-old Mardocheo Paone. The event was purposely planned to bring generations of players together, said Jean D'Amelio Swyer, chair of Thorold’s Age-Friendly committee.
The bocce tournament followed a successful Swim and Move Night, which the committee recently hosted with the same intent. More than 100 participated in that inter-generational event.
According to D'Amelio Swyer, at least one bocce team member had to be a Thorold resident, one had to be 55 years or older, one had to be younger than 20; the other two could be any age.
