Friends,
USA Fencing Board Elections start in six days. The voting system will be a preferential/ranked vote system. More information about that here: How Does Preferential (Ranked) Voting Work?
There are three open spots and eleven candidates. I’m writing today to tell you why Dr. Ann Marsh-Senic OLY will be ranked No. 1 on my list.
My husband is a first-generation immigrant whose parents both chose a career in education: and educating their own was their top priority. My parents are blue-collar folks from South Carolina who worked long hours and hard jobs while making sure me and my sisters busted our butts in school. Neither of us come from a place of privilege, but we sure feel privileged to have had parents who cared so much about our success.
Eventually, our families’ sacrifices paid off. We made it through our respective public high schools and State Universities and we both earned our law degrees…. doing our level best to make our parents proud.
Then the stars aligned - and we met each other.
After we married, my husband and I day-dreamed of the day our oldest son would start SCHOOL. We weren’t really into sports. I mean, we played sports as kids, sure. But as grown ups, meh. We are civil rights lawyers! Litigators! We do jury trials for fun! We enjoy reading and music and food and politics (and on this last point, arguing a lot). “Future athlete” wasn’t off the table, but it wasn’t really on our check-list of must-haves either. We just sort of assumed that our kids would be “bookish” - like us……
So, fast-forward A DECADE. Three kids and a least a dozen schools later, NOTHING WAS WORKING. The kids were whip smart, but absolutely miserable. WE were miserable. The whole family was suffering. Turns out, all three boys got the dyslexia/dysgraphia gene. And boy, was it hard. Tears hard. Every day tears hard.
We live a full day’s drive from our closest relatives. In 2018 we were hustling to start our own small business, worried about a serious family illness and we simply could not figure out a way to make school work and “work” work at the same time. It felt like we were doing a balancing act on tope of a tightly-wound spring. Then, Covid happened. And the Olympics happened. And Lee Kiefer happened. And we discovered our local fencing club….
After that, everything started clicking. The earth turned for us again. And things changed almost overnight. The best way I can describe it is…I stopped clenching my teeth throughout the day. We all breathed a little easier. The kids were smiling and giggling and EXERCISING. And this emotional space just opened up for us as a family. Like, we were free to just be us. A monumental change. Monumental.
We are still working on our reading and writing skills - and on undoing some of the frustrations and bad habits we learned during our maladjustment days at school (God Bless all the teachers out there!). But fencing has helped in ways we didn’t even expect. I won’t list those ways here. The list is too long.
Just know this: The last 18 months of our lives have been an absolute gift. And our coaches and our fencing family have been the driving force. They’re our tribe. We found our tribe. YOU ARE OUR TRIBE.
That’s why, when I saw Donald Alperstein’s Motion to the USA Fencing Board last year, I knew I had to take action. And Ann Marsh-Senic was right there with me. She told me point blank that she wasn’t going to let ANYONE cancel Youth National Events. And she was right. Ann was instrumental in our efforts to prevent the current Board from cancelling Youth National Events. (Anyone who tells you otherwise is committing a moral infraction).
In the coming days, I will provide more information about Ann’s credentials. For now, please know that Ann will be ranked No. 1 on my ballot. I sincerely hope you consider making her your first choice also. Why? Because, when the establishment comes for Youth Fencing again - and they will - Ann won’t back down. I know this about her because I’ve seen it in her coaching, in her children (both are tenacious fencers), and in my work with her on this petition. She’s a former Olympian, folks! She’s got what it TAKES.
From one parent to another, please consider putting Ann at the top of your list.
Much Love To You All,
Christina