A new thrilling project has seen the light of day at the FIE. At their meeting in Nice on 17th of February, the FIE Executive Committee decided to launch the Pilot project Pass on your fencing gear!
The idea behind it is simple: it aims to collect used equipment, which is safe and still in good condition from fencers, with the aim of donating it to fencers living in disadvantaged realities and/or challenging environments. Manufacturers are also invited to contribute their unsold stock.
Pass on your fencing gear! follows the FIE Statutes’ basic principles:
“In order for the fencing world to progress as a whole, solidarity between the strong and the weak is an undeniable requisite, whether it be between continents, federations or athletes.
This vision must become real. Our common singular motto: Fencing together, universal fencing.”
At the core of this project you will find the fencers. Pass on your fencing gear! was thought of as a way both to provide those athletes wanting to commit to the development of the sport with a simple yet concrete tool and also to benefit the future potential athletes that were the recipients of that gesture.
There are many potential good fencers hidden around the world that only need a little encouragement to know the sport and to bloom. This donation project, aiming at introducing fencing where it is still absent, wants to push the boundaries of the sport further and to give a chance of discovering fencing to people that do not even realise they can fence.
Pass on your fencing gear! brings with it a sprinkle of green, it extends the life of the fencing equipment, thus reducing the waste. In this sense, it can also be read as a sustainability initiative.
The project was conceived as a creative way to provide a solution for many to start fencing, and reduce the obstacle of the equipment, which is still costly in many countries. This will hopefully remove one factor that slows down the development at grassroots level. The charity dimension is at the core of the idea. Solidarity is the key-word for this new move by the FIE, which is mobilises fencers through the direct engagement of the FIE Athletes’ Commission and will play the role of conveyor belt to facilitate the flow of donations.
‘I am delighted that the FIE launched this project. Pass Down Your Fencing Gear is an excellent illustration how to create a development program which combines social responsibility as well as the aspects of sustainability. It is promising that iconic fencers are standing by because the recipe for its success lies in the hand of our athletes.’ Said the FIE Sport Director Krisztian Kulcsar.
Nobody was born a fencer, but many have decided to become fencers and devote their lives to this sport.
Pass on your fencing gear! appeals to all of them, regardless of the age, category, weapon and ranking. It calls them to remember when and why they once decided to be fencers. It invites them to share their passion as well as their equipment so that other human lives can be impacted and changed through fencing.
The Cadet and Junior World Championships 2017 will mark the kick-off of the campaign: a collection point will be available in Bulgaria. The delegations participating to the World Championships will be able to collect equipment at home and bring it along to Plovdiv. The stand will serve also those fencers that wish to pass on an item of their equipment after the end of the competition.
So, if last year’s uniform is too small for you now, bring it to Plovdiv.
Pass on your fencing gear!