Skater of the Month #1- Lezleigh Jaworski

[mtnme]

As promised, The Rocker Fund's first Skater of the Month.

Here are some guidelines

1) Lezleigh Jaworski is our first Skater of the Month.
She is a member of Southern California Speed Skating.
Make your check out to that organization and mail it to the address that is below her bio. It is tax deductible.

2) This is a BIGGIE!!!
Make sure that you also include your wishes that you want your donation to go to Lezleigh.

3) Also include that you are part of The Rocker Fund.
S. California Speed Skating will be tracking your donations to see how well our little cause is doing.

4) Congratulations to Lezleigh for being our first Skater of the Month. Your bio was so touching and heartfelt, we thought you were the perfect skater to start The Rocker Fund with.
(You made Lori GND cry! ...Well, Ok, I sniffled too a little... We hope our efforts will help you with your funding, so that you can get back out on the ice with the rest of your teammates, and skate to your full potential.

5) I'll send out a little extra challenge for the fans who live in the Sunny Golden State to be as generous as they can with their donations. Many of you are from California too, as am I. Gotta represent, girlfriends- we take care of our own, - yes?

6) Most of you expressed the idea of your donation feeling personal. It would be a great idea if you sent Lezleigh a little note along with your check. I"ll bet it will make both of you feel good.

Now- without further ado....

[Lori]

I remember hearing about Lezleigh in 2006-2007 when she was skating in the World Cups - she was mentioned at OZ quite a bit. And then we got to see her skate in December at Nationals! She's a sweet, beautiful girl, isn't she?

Lily will love that she works with Special Olympians.

Thanks, Lezleigh, for taking this 'leap of faith' with us.

Okay - our first skater! Let's get this gal some ice time!

[wildfire]

Yay!!! Congrats to all who helped get this RockerFund off the ground!!! You know who you are, so "love" to you! And good job Lezleigh for being the first skater...you rock! We won't let you down.

[susie]

I was so ticked off that Lezleigh is not getting her ice time that I just walked my check down to the neighborhood mailbox.

Thanks for getting this effort off the ground, Mtnme and Lori.

And now I have a new "sumbunny" to cheer!

GO LEZLEIGH!

[mari]

I'm with you Susie... my check and note going out today. We've got to get this girl back on the ice where she belongs. I am so glad this is off and flying. Let's go Short Track fans... The RockerFund Rocks!!

[mtnme]

Alrighty then!!! Count me in, my check is now on it's way to S. Cal. too.

There's been over 200 hits on Lezleigh's thread. I hope even the 'lurkers' are moved to help her out and get this girl back into her skinsuit!

Remember, anything you can give will help. It all adds up!

[apolostarr]

This is great Michelle!
Please email me all the info you have here for her info in the Word doc into an email so I can create a page for her...I don't need the HTML
just all the paragraph and pictures.

[mtnme]

bump it up!!!!

[mtnme]

We are currently working on ideas for The RockerFund sweatshirts for those of you who would like to wear one to the next short track event. On the back will be the names of all The Skaters of the Month, up to that point - which would be the first World Cup in October at SLC.

...For which Lezleigh will be our first skater listed at the top.

Remember, this endeavor relies on YOU the fans, to make it happen.

...even all you lurkers - we know you're out there and reading all the topics. We hope some of you will be moved to join GA and participate in not only the forum, but going to some Short Track events. We PROMISE - you will have a GREAT TIME, and there will be plenty of us there for you to hang out with

Speaking of which: Southern California Speed Skating puts on Skate-a-thons as a fundraiser to support their programs. All of you Southern Cal. folks might consider checking it out. Many of the junior team and up and comers are part of this club and train there, some of whom, no doubt, will be at Nationals this year.
Just a thought.....

[breeze]

Financially I'm struggling to keep afloat right now. So I can identify with Lezleigh who's trying to pursue her dream to the Olympics. And I can afford to send her $10. It's not much, but if others do the same it could add up to a sizable amount. Enough to get her to the Olympics, I hope.

[mtnme]

Apr 16, 2008 10:36:15 GMT -5 breeze said:

Financially I'm struggling to keep afloat right now. So I can identify with Lezleigh who's trying to pursue her dream to the Olympics. And I can afford to send her $10. It's not much, but if others do the same it could add up to a sizable amount. Enough to get her to the Olympics, I hope.

Thank You Breeze for your willingness to help Lezleigh, despite your own financial situation. Every donation helps, believe me. In fact, we were expecting a lot of small donations, which we hoped would add up. To date, Lezleigh has received 7 donations, but they were generous, so it's all good.

We appreciate that the people who populate GA are not wealthy, myself included. But most of us could wiggle $10 out of our budgets to send to a cause we believe in. So please everyone, don't believe for a second that your donation is too small to matter. It does.

Lezleigh's thread has gotten 440 hits so far. If even a quarter of those people who have visited this thread and read about Lezleigh and were moved enough about her story to send in $10, that would be 100 x $10= $1000. And that buys Lezleigh several weeks of ice time.

See how fast it adds up?

We keep saying it's expensive to skate, but that really doesn't tell you much, does it? So we have gotten some numbers together that we will be posting here and on The Rocker Fund thread to let you all know what these skaters are contending with.

In the meantime, to all the GA'ers and Lurkers, any donation you can give WILL make a difference.

oh, and Daisymomma, we're working on the sweatshirt idea. We'll keep you all posted on how that's coming along too.

[mtnme]

(Posted on The Rocker Fund thread as well)
We thought you would all be interested in some of the expenses associated with anyone who participates in short track speed skating. We keep saying "it's expensive", but that doesn't really tell you much, now does it? The following is a breakdown of some of the costs. These are averages, but it does let you know what a skater has to come up with to compete, and more importantly, what your donations are helping with.

(items in parenthasis are added explanations from me, not a quote from our sources)


BOOTS:$1000-2200
BLADES: $325-520
SKINS: $150-300
CUT PROOF SKINS: $150-250
TIPS(for gloves): $10-40
GLOVES: $15-40
HELMETS: $70-100
SHARPENING STONES: $40-140
BURR STONES: $4-40
BLADE GUARDS: $15-25
KEVLAR CALF/ANKLE PROTECTORS: $20-50
SHARPENING JIGS: $155-500
TURN CABLE $150-180
RADIUS/BEND GAUGE: $200

Other costs include:

1) Ice time can vary from rink to rink. But here's an average. For an adult skater (19 and over) it costs $20 each time they skate. If a skater is on the ice 5 times a week, then they spend $100 a week on ice alone.
(....And that's not a Disneyland - 'All Day Ticket'. That could be an hour of ice time or a session.) Update: A session at S. Cal is an hour and 15 minutes.

2) travel to competitions. A skater like Lezleigh will typically travel to 4 American Cups and to the US Championships. If each trip costs $500 (airfare, hotel and food) that is a $2,500 budget for travel to competitions.

(I personally, think those figures for travel are a little light. As some of you know who flew in from the opposite coast for WC6, airfare alone could cost you $500rt)

3) gym membership and strength and condition coaching can run a lot. Some skaters find this type of support for about $100 a month or some $1,200 a year.
(An elite level skater I'll bet would be spending even more on personal trainers)

4) some skaters see nutritionists and or sports psychologists. You can imagine those costs!

5) Some skaters have private coaching sessions from the top coaches in the country.
(Cha-ching.) Update: Approximately around $40 for a half hour, (average cost for individual coaching, group coaching is less per skater)

(I've also heard that the costs of those non-cut skinsuits can reach into the 1000's at the elite level)

(Many, many, thanks to JL for gathering this information, Anthony Barthell, who has been unbelievably generous with all the time and information he has given us, I don't know when he's found time to skate!, and Sue Perles from SCSSA who has really gone above and beyond in helping us with the best solutions for setting up our fundraising efforts and really having the best interests of the skaters at heart)

[Lori]

Breeze, let me add my thanks to Mtnme's. $10 today = $10 more than yesterday!

[mtnme]

Another nice picture of Lezleigh. Photo by Jerry Search



Lezleigh's time as 'Skater of the Month' will soon be coming to a close, and it will be time to give attention to the next skater. You can still donate to Lezleigh at any time, and her bio will remain on GA. We just won't be actively bumping it.

Her bio will eventually be permanently on the website being built for the skaters, so their information can be accessed at any time.

Thank You to all of you who donated to Lezleigh, and helped us get this fledgeling project off the ground. ;D

[mtnme]

This is Lezleigh's last day as Skater of the Month on GA.
(I got her up a week late in April)

Her thread has gotten over 1000 hits. If everyone who read up on Lezleigh during the course of the last month even sent her $1, she would have had over $1000 to put toward travel expenses and ice time. (and check out what airfare is going for now! OMG!!!! ) ...I'm reeling from the costs myself!!!

GA has between 400 and 800 visitors a day. Our hope was that those of you who come here for Apolo news and cruise over to the Skater of the Month threads are moved enough to send a few bucks in the direction of some of his fellow skaters.
(I'll bet Apolo and Yuki would have appreciated a little financial help like this when Apolo was coming up in the ranks.)

Skating is an expensive sport, and any athlete that aspires to Olympic dreams has to make a lot of sacrifices to represent our country, as do their families. If you're like me, and religiously watch the Olympic Games, here is an opportunity to give a little something back to those athletes that represent us, and do so with grace, class and integrity.

Her thread will remain here, but will be 'unsticky-ed'. It is already permanently up on The Rocker Fund website, and you can still donate to any of the skater's at any time. We eventually want to make the site more interactive, but we have a good start, and we hope to continue to build from there.

therockerfund.org/content/

Once again, THANK YOU to all the fans who have already donated to Lezleigh. We hope this will move others to help out a skater with whatever you can. Remember, no donation is too small, when there is the power of many behind them.

And to Lezleigh, our very first skater, - Thank You for being a part of this. ,
We hope this helps in some way with your expenses. We also hope this has introduced you to some new fans and will increase your own rooting section at events. ;D



The U.S. Women's Short Track Speedskating World Cup Team (2006 ?) representing the U.S. at World Cups #3 (Saguenay, Quebec), #4 (Montreal, Quebec), #5 (Heerenveen, Netherlands), & #6 (Budapest, Hungary). Left to Right: Tina Koenig, Kimberly Derrick, Cherise Wilkins, Lezleigh Jaworski, Sonia Milan, and Sarah Lang.