I’m Still Here

Posted on November 14, 2011 by thehotflashseattle

It has been almost a year since I’ve posted my last blog and it’s time to start again.

Here is a summary:

In the past year, I’ve been working on getting my leagues started and we have three; Seattle Roller Derby, Bellevue Roller Derby and Tacoma Roller Derby. We’re having our first ticketed event on January 29th 2012 at Bellevue Skate King and we’re busy putting those pieces together.

There have been times when I doubted I could pull it off and times when I thought I might not be able to do it. I’ve coached hours weekly and at one point I was coaching 15 hours weekly not including travel time. I’ve accumulated some wonderful team players along the way; both in admin support – volunteering as well as meeting some AWESOME skaters.

I’ve written coaches training manuals, fought like crazy to find and secure facilities, have created forms for tracking membership, figured out insurance options, figured out enough IT to have a somewhat of a website that is OK for now and gotten the word out on Facebook as much as possible. I finally Found a forum that works without crashing my system, tracked my expenses, membership and accounting, gotten sponsorship programs in place and again, have met some tremendous and awesome people along the way.

I was honored to lead some trainings at RollerCon and got a chance to skate with the OSDA Pro group in Philly which was a blast.

I’ve been asked to be the president for the Old School Derby Association and I am working hard to get the pieces in place to earn that title that I humbly accept.

I’ve been teaching a derby class through the North Seattle Community College, the Seattle Parks Department and have sent proposals out to other programs and colleges.

I’ve gotten our 501c3 non profit HeadHigh Program and Junior Derby hooked into the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County to begin in January and am VERY excited about that.

I am so grateful to be able to make a difference for people and now I need to pull the puzzle pieces together to devote my efforts full time in having this passion support my family and help to create jobs and opportunity for others.

I am one of the luckiest people in the world and still work to maintain perspective as I pull myself out of the muck of divorce and loss.

The journey is beautiful and horrific and getting through this pack of life is what it is; A gift that cannot be taken for granted even in the most difficult of times.

Sharing the Love from the bottom of my heart, and now I’m gonna go pick up my kid.

Skate SAFE.

About thehotflashseattle

I'm a person who found derby at JUST the right time in my life to give me hope, make me stronger and experience something that had been waiting for me all these years! My mightiest goal is to mainstream the sport of roller derby. My selfish goal is to help other people find ways to skate,connect and inspire each other to get back on track when they begin to slip off and help them up when they fall. Doing this helps me believe that there are others ready to do the same for me. In 2012 I had four surgeries, two of which were mastectomies and now at 57 I'm cancer free and back on track. Three years ago on this profile I claimed not to be a "great" coach but wanted to share what I knew. I am revising that statement at this time because I have figured out that I'm a survivor, a warrior and a damn good coach! I am the founder of OneWorld Roller Derby in the Greater Seattle area. We are sharing our resources to help other leagues form and we're creating a circuit that is coming together utilizing USA Roller Sports as a common link. We are bring roller derby to schools, colleges, parks departments and community centers across the US. Helping each other through the pack is what makes life work for me. In the world we get knocked down, get back up, reset and help each other through the pack. We look ahead for the holes to jump through. We gain momentum to find the endurance we need to be able to make it around the track one more time even when we don't think we can. Derby = life = Derby; It's all the same game to me.
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