Please donate today to help our young athletes!
What it is: The PVFA Travel Fund is a bank account used to hold money that PVFA fencers and coaches can apply to use toward their travel expenses to national level fencing competitions such as the Junior Olympic National Championships, North America Cups, and the Summer National Championships.
Why donate?: These kids work hard and it is good to see their hard work pay off by qualifying to large national competitions. Travel expenses are often very high, including airfare for them and a parent and the hotel fees. I'd like to see as many of my students be able to attend these large competitions as possible because they offer many rewards, such as opportunities to improve their ranking in the fencing community, as well as the chance to be observed by college coaches from around the country. Individuals and businesses that donate will have their names listed on the website as appreciated donors and will also receive, if they wish, for a donation of $200 or more, a gift certificate good for our Intro or Historical fencing classes.
Our current short term goal for the PVFA Travel Fund: We're hoping to raise money to help Abby Delamater and Kevin March, along with their parents and coaches, travel to the Junior Olympic National Championships this February 12th through the 15th, 2010, in Memphis Tennessee.
Kevin (far left) and Abby (far right) qualified for the Junior Olympic National Championships.
Abby Delamater is a young woman who currently fences at PVFA and is a member of the Northampton High School fencing team. She competes in USFA competitions around the country and has recently qualified for the Junior Olympic National Championships. A gold medalist since her first competition at thirteen years old, she has since competed in eight states and last summer she competed at the USFA Summer National Championships in Texas. Last summer she attended an intensive training camp at the University of Pennsylvania. Her success on the fencing strip is mirrored by success in school where she has developed an interest in foreign languages and music. Though a flute player since middle school, she is now playing the bass drum in her high school marching band. Fencing has given her poise and self confidence and she is already making plans for her future. She is already looking forward attending a college such as Brandeis (where her father attended) or Penn State where she can fence competitively as well as take advantage of study in a semester abroad program. Abby is coached by Paul Sise
Kevin March, who recently qualified for the Junior Olympics National Championships, has been fencing at PVFA since the fall of 2006. For the second year, Kevin fences men’s sabre for the team at Northampton High School, where he is a sophomore. He has participated in PVFA’s summer fencing camps for the past three years and last summer attended an intensive fencing program at the University of Pennsylvania. He frequently competes in the New England region. He also enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience with beginning fencers and regularly devotes his free time to assisting with beginner’s classes at PVFA. Kevin is an avid reader and writes for the school newspaper at NHS, where he has maintained high honors. He has special interest in European history and Spanish language and culture. He doesn’t know exactly what his future holds, but he knows that it will combine his passions for writing, history, travel, and, of course, fencing. Kevin is coached by RJ Ferullo.
Here's the text from a recent article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette:
EASTHAMPTON - Abigail Delamater travels to Memphis today to fight and make friends with her competitors at the Junior Olympic National Fencing Championships.
The 16-year-old said she's confident she'll like the other young women with weapons, including those who seek to strike her.
"It's such a polite sport," said Delamater, a 10th-grader at Northampton High School. "When you're fencing you're so aggressive, but when you're done, you take off your helmets and say 'thank you, nice bout'."
Delamater and Kevin March, also a sophomore at Northampton High School, both qualified for this year's Junior Olympic National Championships. They train at the Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy on Union Street and are members of their high school's fencing team.
In preparation for this week, Delamater has performed 20 sit ups, 20 push ups, 20 minutes of jump rope and 100 lunges every day, in addition to three practices a week at school and two practices a week at the academy.
During a practice last week, Academy owner Paul Sise commended Delamater for her speed, aggression and toughness.
"Abby shows a lot of determination," Sise said. "She's very bright and she's very athletic. Put all those together and she's a good student to have."
Sise credited March - who was sick last week but expected to be well in time for the championships - for his fencing ability and for regularly assisting him with beginner's classes at the academy, where March has been fencing since 2006.
"He's very likeable and an easy-going, soft-spoken person," Sise said. "He doesn't come off as intimidating, so he's a good demonstration partner."
Approximately 40 students attend Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy, which has been located on Union Street for nearly seven years. Qualifying for the junior Olympics is "fairly rare" for this area, Sise said, although older clubs in Boston and New York have more members that qualify each year.
"As a relatively new club, this is great for us," Sise said.
Delamater toted her weapons to the academy last week with her father, Ron, who accompanied her on her first visit there five years ago. She explained her love for the sport as she unzipped her bag.
"I wasn't really involved in any other sports," Delamater said. "I knew right away this was something I wanted to do."
She described fencing as "physical chess."
"There's a lot of strategy," Delamater said. "There's so much thinking involved, which is great."
Recruiters from various colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania - where Delamater and March have both participated in fencing camps - are expected to eye junior Olympics competitors this week.
"I'm going to do my best," Delamater said. "I'll probably come out somewhere in the middle."
Delamater was 13 when she took first place out of 15 competitors at an unclassified competition in Worcester. She was the youngest competitor. "I like winning."
At that competition, she earned a "D" rating on the "E" through "A" scale (with "A" being the highest) - an unusual accomplishment for a novice. A newspaper clipping about her "D" earning hangs on the bulletin board at the academy.
"It was one of the proudest experiences in my fencing career," she said. Meanwhile, Delamater said she hopes to use the latest competition to help her get ready for recruiters at next year's junior Olympics. She also intends to expand her fencing network, which consists of friends she's made at competitions in Texas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. She continues to keep in touch with them on social networking Web sites.
"I make new friends from competing everywhere," Delamater said.
To learn more about March and Delamater or to make a donation to help raise money for academy members to attend competitions like the Junior Olympics, visit www.pioneerfencing.com/travel.htm.
Catherine Baum can be reached at cbaum@gazettenet.com
Our current donors: The Singh Family, Paul Sise, The Messbauer Family
Please donate by making a check payable to "PVFA Travel Fund" and mailing it to the club at: PVFA, 31 Union St, Easthampton, MA 01027
or click the button below to use a credit card:
Please include your return address if you wish to receive a gift certificate for your donation of $200 or more, or send that information in an email if you are donating with Paypal. Donors will be listed on the website unless they request to remain anonymous.
Please note that for tax purposes, donations to this fund do not qualify as a charity donation to a non-profit organization. Donations are not tax deductible.
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Application process: Candidates for a travel grant must apply in writing and give details about the competition he or she expects to attend as well as an estimate for travel expenses. The application must be delivered to Coach Sise at least 30 days prior to the start of the competition. A coach accompanying PVFA fencers to national competitions may apply for a travel grant if the fencer or fencers he or she is accompanying cannot pay for his or her travel expenses. Fencers may apply for a travel grant once per calendar year. Fencers must be members of PVFA for at least one year prior to applying. I ask that those receiving a travel grant help refill the account by soliciting donations from individuals and businesses.
Size of travel grants: The amount awarded per request is dependant upon several factors, including availabilities of funds, estimated expenses of the fencer, and the desire to allow for multiple students and or coaches to withdraw from the fund each year. Fencers should not expect that their trips will be fully funded by a travel grant. My goal is to be able to provide three or four grants in the $250 to $500 range each year.
Payment of funds: Payment of funds will be made as a reimbursement after completion of the competition.