Our Crowdfunding Groups
Our crowdfunding campaign has ended, but you can still support the UCLA Fencing Club by clicking here.
WHO WE ARE
Fencing has been around for centuries, and the UCLA Fencing Club has been a part of UCLA for many decades. As a collegiate club sport, we have won numerous awards in the Southern California collegiate division and have hosted the famous UCLA Okawa Open for many years. We often coordinate tournaments with other collegiate fencing clubs, and last year we won in all three weapons at the IFCSC tournament, held at UC Irvine. Additionally, many of our members are quite accomplished fencers, having won medals in various regional and national competitions. Our goal has always been to spread the sport of fencing to the UCLA community.
WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP
We are a student-run club, operating solely off of funds raised from the generous donations of people like you and club dues. In recent years, the COVID-19 crisis has created a strain on our budget. Last year, in an effort to help keep our club open to all students, we allowed members to join for free. However, this means that we are unable to afford many of the necessary costs of running a fencing club. We are in the process of rebuilding our club, and this means recruiting new members and purchasing new equipment. Even with the club dues from this year, we still need your help to provide the best training we can to our members.
This quarter, we are very excited to welcome our new coach, Jim Beihold, who currently serves as the Chair of the Southern California Division of USA Fencing, the main governing body of fencing in the US. We have not had a coach in a few years due to the pandemic, but we want to be able to provide our fencers with the support they need to improve their fencing skills. However, providing a coach adds an additional strain on our budget. In addition to helping us replace equipment, we are also raising money to pay for coaching.
Finally, we are also looking to make our club more competitive. Your generosity will help us to provide a more rigorous training for our fencers, as well as providing us the necessary resources to travel and participate in competitions like the UCSD Blade Runner Regional Open Circuit, or even some North American Cups held outside of California.
Our goal this year is $5000, and by meeting that goal, we will be able to pay for our new coach, as well as purchasing new equipment for our hard-working fencers. There is a long road ahead of us as we continue to rebuild our club, but with your help, we will be that much closer to giving our members the resources to participate in such a fascinating sport. We thank you for your support for the UCLA Fencing Club. Any help will make a lasting impact to the future of our club and community.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE UCLA FOUNDATION'S DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS FOR DONORS
This is a vital piece of equipment which protects fencers from being injured by broken weapons during bouts. Next to the jacket and the mask, this is one of the most important pieces of safety equipment.
Floor cables are the cords that link our main electrical scoring machine to the reels that connect to the fencers' weapons. After many years, our floor cables are in need of replacing.
Fencing would not be much of a sport without the blades. The blades for foil, one of the three weapons, often fall into disrepair after repeated use and need to be replaced. Currently, we do not have enough working blades to support our fencers and we are looking to purchase more.
The blades for epee and sabre, the other two weapons in fencing, also fall into disrepair and must be replaced. Many of our fencers use epee and sabre blades, and we are looking to purchase more so that all of our members can fence with a working blade.
Lames are the conductive vests worn by foil and sabre fencers in order to register a point that lands on the target. However, over time, these lames corrode and no longer conduct, meaning that points no longer register properly, and thus, they must be replaced. Many of our lames no longer conduct properly and we are hoping to replace them.
For sabre fencers, the lame is a long-sleeve jacket as their target covers the entire upper-half of their body. They are slightly more expensive than foil lames, but we currently do not have any working sabre lames
The scoring machine is the central device that registers when a fencer has made contact with their opponent. Currently we only have one working machine, meaning that only two fencers can practice with the machine at a time. Reels are used to connect the fencer and their weapon to the scoring machine so that the machine knows when a fencer has made contact. We are looking to replace some of our reels as they have fallen into disrepair. A donation of $350 will cover the cost of one scoring machine or one reel (a full fencing strip consists of one scoring machine and two reels).