We have been given a really good tip by a fencer and friend of sabre!
Use the Easyfundraising app and choose The Sabre Club Charitable Foundation as your cause – or someone else if you really must.
If you shop through the app – in more than 6,000 different stores we will get a donation as they get a referral payment. And it won’t cost you or us a penny.
All the funds raised will go towards supporting young fencers who need the help.
We don’t want it to be just about supporting teams and individuals at the elite end of the sport. That is not the main aim at all. We want to help make our sport as inclusive and accessible and enjoyable as possible.
By the way the request for trustees still stands. Even if you don’t have much time, but do want to help in some way we would love to hear from you.
We will be welcoming one new trustee soon but a couple more would be very useful. You don’t have to be old to be a trustee. In fact we need people who are close to the action as well. You could be an active fencer. You could be a parent. The main requirement is a love of sabre and a non partisan approach to life in general as well as fencing.
Thank you for your support. Both moral and financial.
We had great pleasure, on your behalf, in helping Luke Haynes get to the Euros in Antalya once he had been selected.
This is what he had to say to you afterwards 🙂
Luke frankly didn’t want to ask for funding, but we encouraged him, as we noticed he was really quite worried about how he was ever going to afford to go. Not surprising given the costs involved and which we mentioned in an earlier update post.
On the back of his performance in Antalya, both as an individual and as a valued team member, Luke will be off to Cairo for the World Championships. Again with a little help from your good selves.
We’d also like to thank Luke for making this video and letting us into his thoughts and emotions.
Why should you be helping fund GBR teams at major championships?
All the fencers still have to pay a large amount to represent their country and this is definitely not a good state of affairs. But that is the situation at present due both to the funds available and to the way in which those funds are allocated by British Fencing. So some fencers really need our help after they have put in so much effort and made sacrifices to be the best they can be. We try to help boost morale via The Sabre Club and financially via the charity.
Please donate more so we can help these and future young fencers to be the best they can be and to inspire others as well.
Thank you.
How can you contribute?
Sign up to smile.amazon and choose The Sabre Club Charitable Foundation if you use Amazon.
If you are selling stuff on Ebay or could be, when you list an item choose the charity ribbon and select The Sabre Club Charitable Foundation – the variable fees are reduced by the same percentage as your percentage contribution to the charity.
Make a direct donation via PayPal on the website. Plenty of buttons everywhere you look – sorry.
Make a direct bank transfer if you like – bank details on the website too.
Maybe you have time or expertise? If you might be able to help please get in touch.
So please do pay us a visit if you haven’t before or come back again if you have.
On behalf of the fencers and the trustees, thank you very much for your support.
We have very recently learned that the cost to the athlete, of being selected and having the privilege to represent GBR at the Senior European Championships is about £640 per athlete, not taking into account the cost of any personal coach – probably about £70 – £100 per athlete on top – so potentially a whopping £710 or more!
Some athletes are in distress! So we are letting you know and asking for your help.
What the athletes see when they are accepting their places is this:
Fencer costs for the Euros
Add to that flight costs of about £200 and you have £640 plus some food not included in the half board accommodation.
Add to that a personal coach if you have one, and you have all their costs potentially split across between 4 or 8 fencers, depending on the weapon. So, let’s assume the coach has a £200 flight, £300 accommodation as they could stay for the team event, transfers of £40 and food. So that’s at least £540 ignoring any coaching fee. Split between the maximum of 8 fencers gives you a minimum of £67 per fencer. Let’s round to £70.
So the minimum is £640 and this can grow to £710 or more.
Some athletes and their parents simply can not afford this without help.
We were recently asked by one already very generous donor, how we were for funds and we thought we were ok for now, but we were wrong. With the Europeans now, and the Worlds to come, we would be very grateful for some more donations so we can help athletes who are really struggling financially.
Who for?
Only for those who really need it, and even then not the full amount but up to 50% of the estimated basic costs levied by British Fencing. We are very pleased to say we have committed to one payment of £320 in response to a request for help.
How much?
Please let us have as much or as little as you can afford.
Don’t you have any money left from previous donations?
We have £1056 in the bank, of which £735 is earmarked for paying for the Euros800 purchased by Peter Howes, trustee on behalf of the foundation to pay for the last two team entry fees. However he is deliberately not taking payment at the moment so the charity has some cash in the bank. That basically only leaves £321 of actual funds.
Yes, the best way is really to set up a standing order or single contribution direct to the charity’s bank account onthe donations page. Sorry the gift aid for that needs a separate form at the moment. We’re working on making it easier in the future.
Please also explore the other ways to support and get in touch with any offers of non financial help too.
Thank you very much for reading this and for all your support. The fencers all really appreciate what you are doing for them.
The Sabre Club Charitable Foundation. Charity No: 1189637 