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Sorry if this has been dealt with extensively. Does anyone have suggestions for raising money to help pay for travel expenses for young fencers. The costs associated with travel to NAC's and SYC'S are a problem for many of the parents.
Sorry if this has been dealt with extensively. Does anyone have suggestions for raising money to help pay for travel expenses for young fencers. The costs associated with travel to NAC's and SYC'S are a problem for many of the parents.
There isn't one; those kids are just screwed. Even Olympians can't get their travel consistently funded.
Try to focus on kids with rich parents so you and they won't be sad when they get to the point of needing national tournaments.
Travel, even not fencing related, is never cheap. When I was traveling a lot for fencing in the 1990's, a lot of things went by the wayside. I stopped going to movies, I picked up the occasional weekend job, I stopped eating out, and so forth.
But this was discretionary spending for me. Making the decision to go to fencing tournaments meant that I was going to not participate in some other activities. I enjoyed fencing more, so I made the choice.
If a parent is having trouble funding a child's hobby, my first question would be why that hobby has taken a priority over other family expenses.
A
That is exactly the problem. Other family priorities preclude spending a lot of money on fencing. So the question is whether there is some way to generate funds to help the parents. I am clueless about these things. I talked to a young lady recently who plays competitive softball which is a very expensive sport because of the travel. She told me her team owns a bingo parlor and they all travel for free. She intends to play softball in college so I assume that is OK with the NCAA. So my thought is that there be may things that could be done that I just haven't thought of.
Fence locally.
One thing that can be done is to encourage the parents to get to know each other. If one or two parents take a minivan's worth of kids to a regional tournament, that's cheaper in time and gas than 4 or 5 cars going. One parent may be willing to look after an extra kid or two over a certain age on a trip involving a plane.
That only goes so far, and it relies on the creation of a community, but it's a first step that doesn't involve convincing people to do large amounts of fundraising.
An alternative is to host or organize a tournament. Bring people to you. It may not payoff in the short-term, but once a tournament is established it may even serve to generate those funds to assist in athletes travel.
The same ways you'd raise money for any activity. Bake sales, car washes, charity auctions, going to local businesses for sponsorships or donations, etc. This part is not fencing-specific.Originally Posted by DLEE
Use the Shift key, people! Keyboard manufacturers everywhere are ineffably saddened when you ignore what they made just for you!
Along with raising money, you can look at reducing the costs associated with travel to NACs and SYCs. Use Priceline or Hotwire for hotels. Use miles/points, bump or companion certificates towards airfares.
Those with decent credit can also look at credit cards. Not so much using them, as applying for them. Within the past year, there have been credit card offers for ... 100,000 BA miles (good for 4 domestic round trips on American or Alaska), 60,000 UA miles, 75,000 AA miles, 50,000 WN points, and on and on. Some with no annual fee for the first year, some with a $50-85 fee, but that's not a bad deal for one to four domestic round trips.
In addition, several of the credit cards will get baggage fees waived for your first bag on the associated airline.
Thanks. I did not know about the credit card deals.
I appreciate the other suggestions as well. We try to encourage parents to share the driving and rooms.
DLEE, you don't indicate where on the west coast your are located and what level of fencing your young fencers are looking to compete at. In addition to the other suggestions if the SF Bay area is close enough and if you aren't already participating I would suggest checking out the Bay Cup. In many of the categories the series is very good. Depending on where you are this might put you in driving distance or even train.
J Jefferies
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