Derby Without Borders
Donation protected
Skating Out of Bounds is a travel blog dedicated to derby. Through our shared community of skating we can cross boundaries, cultures and language. Derby has a way of bringing together some of the most magical, strong, and generous people the world has to offer.
I attended the Roller Derby World Summit in Manchester in late April. The conference had many amazing discussions, including a panel of skaters from emerging regions for derby. Each of them spoke to the barriers for their own leagues when it comes to building up derby somewhere new. One theme that came up across the panel was access to gear. While the reasons each area struggle accessing gear are unique, the overarching need remains the same.
And that’s how the Derby Without Borders project was born! Skating Out of Bounds is collecting gently used and next to new gear donations of all shapes and sizes and getting them to other parts of the world!
With the help and support of Master Blaster of Quad City Skate Shop, Rollercon, and my wonderful volunteers, we are working hard to make this idea come to life.
Our current goal for our Rollercon donation point will be to collect at least 20 full sets of gear and skates to bring to Argentina, where customs regulations often create a barrier in access to gear. The donations will be given to Sailor City Rollers, a local league in Buenos Aires where they can disperse donations among veteran skaters who are due a new set up and fresh meat skaters who are just getting started.
Huevos of Sailor City Rollers shares a little bit about her league and the barrier in access to gear:"Sailor City has roughly 50 committed skaters and 20 collaborators and officials. One of the main issues here is getting affordable skates and gear, and some of our teammates had to stop skating for several months due to gear related issues. It is really difficult to involve new skaters because of how hard it is to get the gear just to start. Some of our own skaters donated some skates and gear, we recycle them as much as we can, but its get short."
This will be the first of hopefully many endeavors to bridge the gear access gap.
We hope that the Derby Without Borders program can continue to grow and evolve to help keep derby living and ever changing all over the world.
Your contributions will help in the main areas of:
Collection
Storage
Transport
Thanks everyone for your support in this project!
Derby Love,
Mae Dae
I attended the Roller Derby World Summit in Manchester in late April. The conference had many amazing discussions, including a panel of skaters from emerging regions for derby. Each of them spoke to the barriers for their own leagues when it comes to building up derby somewhere new. One theme that came up across the panel was access to gear. While the reasons each area struggle accessing gear are unique, the overarching need remains the same.
And that’s how the Derby Without Borders project was born! Skating Out of Bounds is collecting gently used and next to new gear donations of all shapes and sizes and getting them to other parts of the world!
With the help and support of Master Blaster of Quad City Skate Shop, Rollercon, and my wonderful volunteers, we are working hard to make this idea come to life.
Our current goal for our Rollercon donation point will be to collect at least 20 full sets of gear and skates to bring to Argentina, where customs regulations often create a barrier in access to gear. The donations will be given to Sailor City Rollers, a local league in Buenos Aires where they can disperse donations among veteran skaters who are due a new set up and fresh meat skaters who are just getting started.
Huevos of Sailor City Rollers shares a little bit about her league and the barrier in access to gear:"Sailor City has roughly 50 committed skaters and 20 collaborators and officials. One of the main issues here is getting affordable skates and gear, and some of our teammates had to stop skating for several months due to gear related issues. It is really difficult to involve new skaters because of how hard it is to get the gear just to start. Some of our own skaters donated some skates and gear, we recycle them as much as we can, but its get short."
This will be the first of hopefully many endeavors to bridge the gear access gap.
We hope that the Derby Without Borders program can continue to grow and evolve to help keep derby living and ever changing all over the world.
Your contributions will help in the main areas of:
Collection
Storage
Transport
Thanks everyone for your support in this project!
Derby Love,
Mae Dae
Organizer
Mae Dae
Organizer
San Francisco, CA