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 just over 100 years now, having celebrated its 100th anniversary last September. 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 just hosted the first IFCSC event of the season last November. 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 and to make fencing more accessible to others.
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. With your support over the last couple years, we have been able to finally start getting things back to normal. We were very excited to host the first fully fledged out IFCSC tournament since COVID last fall, and our members are busy preparing for the second and final IFCSC event coming up in February. Additionally, we have multiple other tournaments planned this year, including the Linkmeyer Invitational at USC. We are also extremely excited to be bringing back the Okawa Open in April, which has been our hope for the last several years. We owe a huge thanks to everyone who has been supporting us because we wouldn't have been able to do it without you.
This past fall, we welcomed 60 new and returning members, almost 3 times higher than last year! We were also very happy to welcome back our coach, Jim Beihold, who joined us last year and he has been a huge help these past several months. However, more members and additional tournaments means that we need more money to ensure that all of our members are able to train to the fullest extent possible. We currently do not have enough equipment to support everyone, and although we are looking to buy more, fencing equipment is not cheap.
Finally, as mentioned earlier, we are finally bringing back the Okawa Open this April which honors our former head coach Heziburo Okawa, who was with us from 1974-1980. This tournament would not only allow our fencers and fencers at other colleges to come and show off their skills, but it would also be open to the entire LA community, allowing us to make fencing even more accessible to the general public. However, running a tournament of this size can be quite expensive, which is why we need your help to make it happen. We'd love to be able to bring back this long-held tradition in the same capacity as pre-COVID.
Our goal this year is $5,000, and by meeting that goal, we will be able to pay for upcoming travel to tournaments, the costs associated with running the Okawa Open, coaching salaries, 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
Should this fund reach the campus minimum required for the establishment of an endowment or quasi-endowment, The UCLA Foundation reserves the right to convert this fund to an endowment or quasi-endowment. Please click here to learn more about how the UCLA Foundation invests and manages its endowments.
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 weapons that fencers use. After many years, our floor cables are in need of replacing.
Fencing would not be much of a sport without the blades. These blades 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.
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 enough working saber lames for everyone in the club.
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).