Young Waterloo Region baseball players featured in national campaign

A couple of Waterloo Region kids have been featured in a new campaign to inspire more people to try the sport of baseball.

The Jays Care Foundation recently launched some new commercials to highlight its programs, featuring real participants. Among the kids who make appearances are Greyson Bonnick, 9, and Grady Spain, 10.

“My best part of baseball is [when] I do the home run,” Bonnick tells CTV News.

Greyson Bonnick (left) and Grady Spain (right) appear in a Jays Care Foundation commercial. (Youtube/Jays Care Foundation)

The teammates, from Waterloo and Cambridge, are now in a nationwide campaign that highlights a series of Jays Care initiatives, including Challenger Baseball – the adaptive program both Bonnick and Spain are a part of.

Their coach, Cam Linwood, nominated a few athletes in the program to participate in the commercial.

“Adaptive baseball is exactly that – it adapts to the unique needs of every single athlete. And we really focus on making the game fit the athlete and not making the athlete fit the game,” says Linwood, who also works for the Jay Care Foundation.

Cambridge's Grady Spain, 10, is pictured in Jays Care Foundation campaign aimed at inspiring more people to try baseball. (Source: Jays Care Foundation)

The campaign’s slogan is: “When you belong, you believe.”

“I think the most important part is recognizing that not everyone has equal access to sport programming in Canada. When we look at a campaign like ‘You belong, you believe,’ I think the real big tenet is the fact that when you really feel like you belong to something, you start believing in yourself,” Linwood says.

It’s a message Bonnick wants to share. Asked what he would tell a kid who wanted to play baseball but had doubts about their ability, his answer is simple.

“I could help you out,” he says.

Greyson Bonnick, 9, from Waterloo, is part of an adaptive baseball team in Waterloo Region. (Source: Jays Care Foundation)

Viewers will be able to the see the campaign when watching Blue Jays games on television and when attending in-person at the Rogers Centre.

As for Bonnick and Spain, they were pretty pleased to see themselves on the screen.

“I was happy,” says Bonnick.