Our Crowdfunding Groups
Our crowdfunding campaign has ended, but you can still support UCLA Fencing by clicking here.
WHO WE ARE
The UCLA Fencing Club has been a part of UCLA for a little over 100 years now, having celebrated its 101th anniversary September of 2024. 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, including scrimmages at UCSD [and others]. Additionally, many of our members are 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 students and faculty by providing 1-on-1 coaching, group lessons on drills and footwork, and lending any equipment for tournaments and practice. For example, our current president started fencing through this club.
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. With your support over the last couple years, we have been able to finally start getting things back to normal post-COVID. We were very excited to host our Intercollegiate Fencing Conference of Southern California (IFCSC) tournament on February 8th, and our members are busy preparing for the next IFCSC event coming up on March 1st. We are also extremely excited to be hosting the Okawa Open in April! We owe a huge thanks to everyone who has been supporting us because we wouldn't have been able to do it without you.
The amount of new and returning members spiked in the last two years, and the number has only continued to grow with around 60 continuous members! We were also very happy to welcome back our coach, Jim Beihold, who joined us in 2023 and has been a wonderful source of advice and support since. However, more members and additional tournaments means that we need more funds 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 continuing to host 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. 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 $3,000, and by meeting that goal, we will be able to pay for upcoming travel to tournaments, the costs associated with running the Okawa Open and 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 an engaging 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.
Body cords are what connect fencers to the strip and scoring machines, and are an essential to any fencing bout.
Under-arm protectors keep 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 in fencing.
Floor cables are another type of cord, one that links the electrical scoring machine to the reels, and then to each fencers' weapon. The more cables we have, the more strips we can set up, and we the more fencing we can do!
Fencing wouldn't be much of a sport without the swords! These blades often fall into disrepair after repeated use and need to be replaced. Currently, we're looking to purchase more working blades to meet the team's needs.
Lamés are the conductive vests worn by foil and sabre fencers to register when a point lands on the target. However, over time, these lamés corrode and no longer conduct, meaning that points no longer register properly. To ensure fair scoring, we're looking to replace our non-conductive lamés.
For sabre fencers, the lamé is a long-sleeve jacket as their target covers the entire upper-half of their body. We've received an influx of new sabre fencers interested in this discipline of fencing, so we're looking to purchase more for club use.
The scoring machine is the central device that registers when a fencer has made contact with their opponent. 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 and a faulty scoring machine as well. 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).