We would like to thank the Detroit News for sharing our story and our passion!

Find the article here: Detroit News Article

Greetings!

2010 is shaping up to be a great year!

Our current objectives for this year:

+Develop a fencing club in Detroit for youth & adults to attend 3-5 days a week
-Seeking partnerships to offset the cost for low-income families
-Seeking upwards of 5,000 square feet of open space to facilitate classes
-Start teaching adult classes

+Establish programs in 3 new schools
+Develop partnerships for summer programs
+Develop our non-profit
-Seeking support in filing our 501c3

En Garde! Detroit is committed to exposing youth (and soon adults) to the advantages of fencing. But we could always use help!

Are you ready to fence in 2010?

If you are interested in classes or having us meet with your school administration regarding our services please contact us.

Info@EnGardeDetroit.com
O: 313-529-9075

A short video portraying what it means to be a fencer.
These young adults were competing En Garde! Detroit’s Ballestra 350 tournament held in Detroit, MI on Wayne State University campus.

The tournament highlights newly graduated high school students culminating their summer program which included Fencing. For more information gotohttp://tinyurl.com/yccbs55

Today, the United States Fencing Association release news about their new Academic All-American program. This program is designed to recognize high school fencers who strive for excellence on and off the strip.

This falls in-line with the mission & motto of En Garde! Detroit. We applaud the national leadership for their commitment to youth development.

“Encouraging a high level of academic achievement in our young athletes is as important as encouraging their athletic achievement.” – USFA

For more details please visit the USFA website:
http://www.usfencing.org/news/article/20485

Greetings,

Every once in a while I get asked, “what is Fencing?” To which I would have to reply:

Discipline.

Focus.

Determination.

Class.

Style.

Energy.

We will be creating a video to illustrate this the EGD way, but until then.

Greetings,

Thought we would share with you some recent media footage of President Obama, showing his support for the U.S.A to host the next Olympics.

Coincidentally, he happened to be a fan of fencing!

So members of the Olympic fencing team gave him a demonstration.

Check out the link below to watch the footage.

BBC Video of President Obama Fencing

Footage provided by BBC.com

Greetings Friends,

We took a few of our students to the Little Murder movie set to have a behind scenes “movie career day”.  They had a lot of fun, and some students even made great connections for their future in the industry.

Check out the video below:
“Local Fencers take a stab at Hollywood.”

Greetings Friends & Supporters,

It has been a wonderful summer with many advancements in our efforts. We set a goal to instruct 400 youth this summer with a 7 man team, we shoot for the moon in this office. We did ended up landing among the stars, instructing close to 300 low-income inner city youth this summer!

Among these stars, were approximately 100 recently graduated high school students who received federal Pell grants for their first five semesters of Wayne State University.

We partnered with Wayne State University to provide an enrichment program using fencing for these bright new college students.

Talk about bright, did you know En Garde! Detroit has an on going study which tracks academic scores of student who we instruct? As expected, a high percentage of our student’s academic scores were higher after having fenced with us for the summer.

We also hosted our First Annual fencing tournament called, The Ballestra 350, the largest multicultural fencing tournament in the USA. With close to 1000 visitors from the community, approx. 100 fencers, and 400 visiting youth from as far away as Pontiac School District. We had a very successful event & plan to expand our efforts in the future.

None of this this could have been possible without the support from our local & corporate sponsors. Especially the fencing clubs & teams from around the area. Excited about the advancements being made in the name of fencing, the fencing community from across the state of Michigan turned out to support our efforts.

This year we had an all-star Guest Director panel. The Ballestra 350 invites Guest Directors to interact with the children as not only mentor & role models but fencing directors in their actual bouts!

Wayne County CEO- Robert Ficano & State Repersentatice Fred Durhal Jr.

So What’s Next?

As summer comes to a close En Garde! Detroit will be working hard to lease or buy a facility
which we can house our students and provide 5 day a week training in the Detroit area. If you have resources to share in furthering our goal contact us.

As always, thank you for continuing to help En Garde! Detroit - “Train the Body, Sharpen the Mind”

In continuing with our mission of increasing the exposure of fencing, we will be working with Little Murder Productions to add fencing to one of their action scenes. Its an honor to be working with the Little Murder crew as they help us add new and exciting sports to major motion pictures.

They are supporting local Detroit economics, lets make sure we support the movie on release!

Watch a brief clip of the new thriller called: Little Murder

First Annual-Ballestra 350

Greetings,

Detroit, MI– On July 31st at Wayne State University’s Matthaei Complex approximately 100 high school graduates will be participating in a fencing tournament called, the Ballestra 350. By collaborating with community leaders, positive political figures, and champions of youth development. En Garde Detroit will foster an environment for community outreach, future collaborations and positive youth interactions.

We will be hosting a fencing tournament to celebrate their upcoming first year of college at Wayne State University. In addition, we are inviting Guest Directors who will interact & inspire these future Michigan leaders.

The keynote speaker of the event will be State Representative, Fred Durhal Jr., who will be speaking about the Free Education Act. This bill will grant free college education to Michigan high school graduates at no cost to the tax payers.

Hope to see you there,

Bobby C. Smith
Founder & Head Coach