Bring Roller Derby to Houston, BC

The Goal

I am trying to raise money to rent the arena in town as practice space this summer. The money raised will cover the first three months of rental, damage deposit and insurance, in order to give my new team a chance to get established before we start paying for our own practice space, or doing our own fundraising. I have booked the arena twice a week until ice is back on, for 2 hours at a time in the evenings. We are to start skating in there on the first week of June (and we can't wait!!!). 




My story

The first time I heard about Roller Derby was back in 2009, watching the movie Whip It. I still lived in Montreal back then, and I remember the first thing I did after watching the movie was to Google ‘roller derby’. I found out that Montreal had a league and that I could join, easy as that. At the time I was quite young and lacked the sense of commitment derby requires (attending regular practices was not in the stars for me at that time), and I also lacked the funds to buy skates and gear, nevertheless from that moment on I knew if there was ever going to be a sport for me I had found it.

Fast forward to a few years later. I had moved to British-Colombia and lived in Penticton, where I got to see my first live roller derby match ever. From the first whistle I was electrified. These women were beautiful, fierce, fearless, I had to be one of them! During the half-time I went to a vendor and tried on some skates, I got a recruitment poster from the Penticton team (the Pistoleras), this time was going to be the one.



I emailed the Pistoleras about joining up and I ordered some skates and gear online, without having too much of an idea of what I was really buying, or how to skate (!). Never mind all that, the recruitment poster said no experience required, and no experience is exactly what I was bringing to the table.

I remember spending my first practice holding on to the wall, afraid of letting go. When confidence grew, so did my skills. Over that first winter, the Pistoleras thought me how to fall (to this day I am still very good at falling!), then they thought me how to step, bend my knees, skate, look up, bend my knees, cross-over, bend my knees, weave through a pack, bend my knees, hit, and, even though I haven’t quite mastered it yet, bend my knees. Most importantly they thought me that if I am passionate enough about something I can do anything (even learn to skate); that the falling didn’t matter as much as the getting back up after.




I did not stay with the Pistoleras long; I am a nomad, I move with my work and I have had more homes in the past 10 years then I care to count, but from that first encounter I had fallen in love with roller derby.

3 years ago I moved to Castlegar to go back to school. I did not know anyone in the Kootenays, so I decided to join their roller derby team. I thought joining would, at the very least, remedy my lack of friends (it sure did!); to be fair, joining the Dam City Rollers was the best thing I had done for myself in years.

With the Dams I got to play a lot of derby. It was wonderful. We traveled to all kinds of places to play, southern BC interior, Washington state, we even made it to Portland a couple years back, where we played a couple games and I got to see the (then) number 1 team in the world play.



We hosted home games, a bootcamp, and practices twice a week. I got to fall in love with roller derby all over again, and I also fell in love with all these strong women I was skating with.


After 2 years of living in Castlegar without being able to find work locally I came to the harsh decision that I had to move once again. This time moving was way harder then it had ever been before, because moving meant I would lose my teammates, and roller derby.

I now live in Houston, BC, with my husband and my dog. We want to make Houston our forever home, and since there is no roller derby in town I have decided to take matters into my own hands, which is why I need your help.

I am proposing to start a roller derby team in town, and to teach anyone who is interested how to skate, and how to play derby. I have gotten a rental agreement with the arena for this summer to host practice twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, from 7 till 9pm. I am trying to raise funds to pay for the first three months of rental in order to give my new team a chance to get established before we start paying for our own practice space.


What I am ACTUALLY going to do with the money raised?

All the money raised will go into the newly created Bulkley Valley Roller Derby (BVRD) bank account. The first thing we are going to spend for is, as I said, rental, damage deposit and insurance (I was quoted a total of  2150$ for the arena, plus 200$ for insurance via CRDi (Canadian Roller Derby insurance). If we raise anything extra it will be used for more practice space, buying team gear for people who want to try out or are just getting started, putting together bootcamp, maybe host a scrimmage... In brief, even if we exceed our goal all the moneys will be spent on more derby, because more derby is exactly what this town needs!!


What is Roller derby?


Roller derby is much more than just a sport. Participants who have become involved in Roller Derby feel it has raised their levels of self- esteem, discipline and empowerment and allows them to share a connection to other women in an environment that celebrates diversity and the ability to simply try something new. As a founder and team member of Houston’s new roller derby team, I am keen on mentoring women in this community, and sharing the passion, fitness and focus that comes from this amazing sport.