[hivemind]

I've been approached by Vanderkamp to help them with some swordfighting activities as part of their summer camp program. This is great for us for a lot of obvious reasons I'm not going to enumerate, and I've agreed to help out by taking some time during their staff training week to go up there and teach the counselors basic foam swordsmanship, shieldwork, hit calibration, weapons checking, what types of games they can play with the kids, and other relevant stuff. There is talk of expanding this in future years, if it's successful, to encompass traditional and boffer archery, polearms, the whole panoply of LARP combat.

I talked at length with their activities director, and she and I agree that the safest and most durable option for them is Dag weapons. We'd also like to get them started with some coreless foam shields, for safety and durability. They're looking to purchase about a dozen of each to start with.

We are teaching them, essentially, Novitas combat with zero body and everyone hitting for one. Or, to look at it differently, we are teaching them Dag combat with no shield bashes or grappling.

I cannot imagine a more appropriate donation to Vanderkamp from Kingdoms of Novitas than for us to donate these swords and shields to them, and the Marshals concur. Therefore:

ALL DONATIONS OF CASH OR CHECK OR PAYPAL AT THE JUNE 2010 EVENT WILL BE COMPENSATED AT A RATE OF 2 XP PER $10 DONATED.

This money will be used to buy shields, swords and headgear (they want martial arts-style head protection for the kids in case of accidents) to donate to Vanderkamp.

Please donate.

[Octavius]

Is there a cash goal that your trying to reach here? or just take what you can get?

[hivemind]

The more that's donated, the more we can buy for them. We've actually already spent over $600, so it'd be really nice to recoup at least that much. Every October we manage to raise $2000 for Greyhounds. If we could do that for Vanderkamp, they'd be ecstatic.

[anabell]

Is VK a 501-c3 not for profit, or a Charitable "Church" organization? Not that XP and doing good things for kids isn't an awesome enough reason to help, but I do try to keep records for my taxes

[hivemind]

Is VK a 501-c3 not for profit, or a Charitable "Church" organization? Not that XP and doing good things for kids isn't an awesome enough reason to help, but I do try to keep records for my taxes

Honestly, it's irrelevant, because you're writing your check to MVGC, Inc, which is not a charity.

[thunderstave]

MVGC is a for-profit? I thought it was a non-prof.

[Dren Ollevres]

I think he meant MVGC isn't considered a 'church donation' or charity for tax purposes.

If KoN was tax-deductible, I'd amend last year's taxes TONIGHT and send them in.

[hivemind]

MVGC is a for-profit? I thought it was a non-prof.

The MVGC, Inc. is a 501.c.7 not for profit corporation. We are in the same category as a fraternal organization (the Elks Club, the American Legion) or a social club (Kiwanis, Rotary). We are not a charity, and so donations to us are not tax deductible.

[thunderstave]

Cool. Thanks Hive.



Also: Donate to this cause! It is a good thing on all kinds of levels.

[hivemind]

Just finished:





And just finished repacking:





Shields are 18" and 28" blanks from Warlord Sports with handles and strapping by me and covers from Axe & Arrow. Swords are all from Axe & Arrow. There's another 24 swords on the way from Jari and Stellaria at Axe & Arrow.

Thanks to everyone who donated! I'll be taking these to Vanderkamp tomorrow night and training the camp counselors then.