Ice dancers turn to crowdfunding
SFU students Linden, Voldeng trying to raise funds to attend World University Games
Ice dancers Alexa Linden and Addison Voldeng have taken on a massive DIY project.
Linden, 21, and Voldeng, 22, are trying to come up with the necessary funds to compete at the Winter Universiade — also known as the World University Games — in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from Jan. 28 to Feb. 6.
They need to raise $15,000, which covers their costs along with those of the coach and Canadian judge that is required to travel with them. Linden and Voldeng are both students at Simon Fraser University, but the school won’t help them with cash since it’s not a varsity sport.
In a bid to come up with the necessary money, they have created a website (alexaaddison.com) and a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ alexanaddison/) and a GoFundMe page (www.gofundme.com/ alexaaddison). They now have merchandise with their names or likeness on it: You can get an Alexa and Addison cotton tote bag ($15.49) or women’s fitness pants ($38.99) or a travel mug ($18.99).
They’ve produced postcards that tell their story that they’re giving out to potential sponsors. Their website lists Fabricana Imports, Climawear, Odlum Brown and Chimp Technology as supporters.
This may or may not get them to Almaty. This may or may not get them jobs in marketing down the line, too, one might guess.
He is a psychology student and she’s into kinesiology. They both may have missed their off-ice callings.
“There’s this,” Linden said, pointing to the fundraising project, “and there’s skating and there’s school and we both have jobs, too.” And sleep? There’s sleep, right? “That’s the one we’re leaving out right now,” she said.
It’s hard to know whether she’s kidding.
They were a fun story before this. Voldeng is originally from the Saskatoon area. Linden was born in Calgary and grew up partly in Oregon. They met in 2013, when they were skating with other partners, and opted to team up in April 2015.
She’s his eighth partner since he started. He is her fourth.
“We said, ‘Hey, let’s give this a shot,’ and it went really well,” Voldeng explained. “We just clicked.” Voldeng added that getting along with one another on and off the ice is key, which led to Linden chiming in that “it’s harder than a marriage.”
They train at 8 Rinks in Burnaby under the Vancouver Ice Dance Academy banner, for coaches Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe, who represented Canada at the Torino 2006 Olympics.
Linden and Voldeng finished 12th in senior dance at last year’s nationals in Halifax. They won a B.C. SummerSkate competition in Burnaby in August. They’re currently at the Skate Canada Challenge in Pierrefonds, Que.
They think that competing in Almaty would be a stepping stone towards the Olympic dreams they have.
The 2015 Winter Universiade was held in Pleso, Slovakia and Granada, Spain and attracted 1,551 competitors from 43 countries in 11 different sports.
The Summer Universiade is often even larger. The 2015 event in Gwangju, South Korea, listed 12,885 athletes from 143 countries in 21 sports.
“It would be a dream come true to go,” said Voldeng.
It, of course, would be that little bit sweeter to get there considering the extracurricular work.
“It’s made us realize how we really want to do this,” Voldeng said of competing.
“And how much we’re willing to do to reach at least some part of that Olympic dream.”