Our Crowdfunding Groups
Thank you for supporting WWU's Judo Club students!
This Project is now closed but you can support Judo Club students or any other group of students at www.wwu.edu/give
Continued Donation for our trip!
Our crowdfunding period may have finished, but don't worry, its still possible to donate to our cause! The WWU donation page can be found here, and you can donate to our club by:
Thank you so much for your continued support!
About Our Trip
Planning for our club's trip to Japan first began in 2019, with our club president intending for us to both train in Japan as well as attend the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Unfortunately, Because of COVID, that trip ended up being canceled and postponed for several more years waiting for Japan to relax its travel restrictions. Since then we have had several new club presidents take over before planning for this trip was revived.
For our new trip, we are planning to travel to Japan in the summer of 2024 to train at the Kodokan for the month of August. While there, not only will we have access to numerous classes offered at the Kodokan, but also the opportunity to experience a new level of Judo not found anywhere else in the world. Our hope is to gain insights into Judo that we can bring home to share with our peers, and further grow the Judo at our Club.
We have done our best to minimize our travel costs: by using the bus system in both Washington and Tokyo and staying in a share-house. We hope to make this trip as affordable as possible for the students attending. The funds from this campaign will go towards our travel and daily expenses for the four students traveling. Additionally, any extra funds raised will be used to finance future club trips and expenses for students. A breakdown of our travel cost estimates can be found here.
About the Western Washington University Judo Club
The WWU Judo Club was first founded by our sensei Joel Carlson in 1979. We currently train off-campus with the local Western Judo Club at a not-for-profit wrestling academy. Joel still teaches occasionally alongside the head sensei of the Western Judo Club Mark Glaser. Joel and Mark have been practicing Judo since their childhood, and both officially achieved the rank of roku-dan last year!
Thank you for your interest in supporting Western Washington Universities’ Judo Club!
Our Traveling Judokas: Nevada Williams, Michael Dufresne, Daniel Radice, and Mikala Conway
Some of our senseis: Joel Carlson, Mark Glaser, Ralph Bajema, David Schull, and Curt Weaver
Every bit matters! Just like in osaekomi, every second in a pin counts! $10 is enough to cover a meal, and we will be counting those up for sure!
Randori, or free sparring, is crucial to learning judo, and these donations will be too! $50 is enough money to cover the cost of a one-month membership at the Kodokan, a little more than a day's worth of food, or nearly one night at a sharehouse for a judoka!
A half score doesn't sound like much, but when one score wins a match, half is a lot! $100 is enough to cover a bus ticket to the airport, two and a half days of meals, or one week at a sharehouse!
Full score! Enough to end a match! These donations secure our trip, like ippons secure placement on a podium! $500 is more than enough to cover a judoka's full stay at a share house, twelve and a half days of meals, and one third of a plane ticket!
It's not easy to win a judo tournament, nor is it to donate this much money. These donors are certainly number one in our hearts, and we hope the experience they are sponsoring creates champions out of us too! $1000 can cover two-thirds of the cost of a plane ticket, the full cost of two judoka's stay in a sharehouse, or six days of meals for all four judokas!
Joseki refers to high officials and honored guests, and those who are able to donate these large sums a certainly honored guests to us! $3600 is enough to cover the full cost of this trip for one of our four judokas!
