Did you know that ND Empowerment’s president Nathan Guan and Isabella Guan are both avid fencers? So, we’ve always wanted to do an event surrounding fencing. We finally got the chance to on June 11th, when Alex, the owner of Amity Fencing Club in Woodinville, agreed to let us host an event there. We once again collaborated with International Buddy to pull off an amazing event for our buddies!
All the volunteers met at Amity Fencing Club before the event started in order to set up. We kicked off the event with a dramatic fencing match between Justin and Andrew to get the kids excited, and then Gavin started explaining some different fencing techniques such as lunging and went over with eepe fencing rules . Andrew Kim explained foil fencing rules and taught everyone how to understand foil bouts, the key information is the right of way. After a bit of fencing practice using just gloves, which we called “glove fencing”, we played a game where volunteers dropped gloves and our buddies had to catch them, which trained their reaction time and lunges. Finally, our buddies were ready to start real fencing! We got them geared up with fencing equipment and swords, explained fencing etiquette and procedures, and then let them fence each other. We also had a machine going that tested the buddies’ reaction times with their swords.
Overall, the buddies and parents really loved this event! Thank you to all volunteers for helping out and Alex at Amity Fencing Club for letting us use the space.
ND Empowerment is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the state of Washington dedicated to preparing neurodiverse individuals for careers through integrated career-technical education (CTE). With unemployment rates for individuals with autism (ASD) being approximately 85%, ND Empowerment’s mission is to tap into the unique strengths, passions, and abilities of neurodiverse individuals to enable them to join the workforce.
To learn more about Amity Fencing Club please visit https://amityfencingclub.com/