We are happy to host this guest post from the Banshees of Roller Derby Udine . In the spirit of their project, this post is available in English, Italian and Friulan [click the language button at the left to pick a language]

Hi everybody!

I'm Sugar Molotov from Banshees - Roller Derby Udine. We are a very small team in the rearmost region in north-east Italy and we are struggling to form a complete roster as many of us did or are still doing right now all around the world. We have all experienced the "roller what...?" reaction from people, and one day I thought: why is it so difficult to explain what's so exciting in this sport? How can I let them see and feel what I saw in Roller Derby and I'm feeling to this day?

So we decided to create a personal space on our social accounts (Facebook and Instagram) for every skater, ref, nso, or supporter to tell what they love about Derby and why they choose to play this amazing, thrilling and yet expensive and possibly dangerous sport, every day. We are all kind of very different people and still this brings us together in an unprecedented way, at least in my experience. This is how the #whyIchooserollerderby campaign was born - of course we do not have as many followers as other, bigger teams would have, but we wanted to try it anyway!

Also, space is a very important concept in Roller Derby so we put no limit: I asked my teammates to join this project, choosing a photo and writing whatever they wanted about it. I wanted them to feel at ease to share what they felt comfortable to. On the way I thought that it would be nice to have other people joining it as well, and here I am asking if you'd feel like joining us. We don't have much to offer in return, except that we'll treasure every single contribution as if it was our own. Every text is translated in three languages, Italian as it's our nationality, English because we want as many people as possible to read it and Friulano, which is the language spoken in this specific, small region of Italy and we want to take part in the effort to preserve it. It's part of our identity as well. Also, one of our teammate translated hers in spanish since it's her legacy, and we loved that immensely.

So! I hope I've given you a reason to join our small project in the hope to make it count in spreading the news there's a new world here, and it's like anything else.

Here are the addresses of our pages, the campaign has just started of course, but you can see how it looks:

https://www.facebook.com/bansheesrollerderby/ https://www.instagram.com/bansheesrollerderby/

Thanks for sparing some time for us,

Sugar Molotov

Banshees Roller Derby Udine

Note: I wrote this letter when the campaign had barely started. It grew slowly but steadily and I really want to thank all the people who made an effort to keep it going: Enrico Comar and Mara Devincenti translated in friulano a few texts, but the majority were made by Enrico Gigante, whom we can’t thank enough. He’s always on the spot and faster than light! Thanks to ARLeF, the regional agency for friulano language and Francesca Battistutta from the regional counter for friulano language for the revisions. She also helped us a lot with this article and she’s invaluable to me for her cheerful self and fierce friulano soul. All the graphics are made by Giulia Malaridotti (Woozy McWolf), our insomniac doggo-lover who send me edited pics at 3am in the morning so that I can publish them in time. English texts were reviewed by Chealsey Lynch (Marma Juke), our US blocker who’ll always be a Banshees in our hearts - we’ll miss you dearly. Special mention to my crazy fellow SMMs: Alessandra Menardi (Jackass Menny), Sveva Angelini (Freaky Pinball) and Alessandra Piermattei (Alycat), who believed in this project even when I didn’t and always had my back when I couldn’t keep up with the virtual world. Grrlz, you are simply the best. I could have never made this come true without you. Last but not least, the whole Banshees team who indulged in my whim and all the other fellow skaters and officials who took part in the project, sending us the most emotional, personal bits of their derby story. Thank you.

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