It was about a week ago that I got a concerned message from Mr. KC Carr of KC Derby Digest, who was asking about a fire at KCRW’s new practice space, Warrior Alley (or, as we lovingly call it, Walley). My first thought was, “What?” followed quickly by, “It’s Friday, nobody is at the space tonight,” and then an, “OMG” plus a series of phone calls and messages and other things I can’t remember. Ultimately, a quick check in with Baby Buster confirmed his concerns: there was, indeed, a fire at our home. In fact, the first article I saw showed somebody getting taken out on a stretcher and everybody in the neighborhood — all of who are smitten with this crazy roller derby league moving in — was telling the media that it was the Kansas City Roller Warriors facility.
Over the past week, I’ve made myself sick thinking about this. Long story short, our landlord was working, an electrical fire started, he was burned and broke his leg, and there’s a ton of damage to his side of the building. Before I go any further, don’t worry — our landlord is okay on on the road to recovery.
But because of all of this, there is no power plus insurance has to come in and assess the damage, which could take… I don’t know… AGES. Plus, we had a juniors bout scheduled for the day after the fire and a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting scheduled for today, all of which meant the league had to band together to make phone calls to parents, business owners, the media… The list goes on and on. Stresssssssssssful.
So, after spending thousands and thousands of dollars on getting the place ready to go, we’re temporarily displaced. In fact, I’m hearing it could be months before we’re back in Walley. And then I keep hearing that parents are angry that they had to reschedule their plans, and people in the community are criticizing us for asking for help. You guys, this is enough to drive a marketing/PR person over the edge.
I’ve had a ton of various reactions over the course of the week. I’ve cried. I’ve cried some more. I’ve tried to sleep the stress away. I worked out a lot and got meat legs in the process (which doesn’t lend itself to playing roller derby). I pigged out on cookies. I think I got an ulcer. I know I plucked several new gray hairs. And there’s been some other garbage I won’t even get into…
In the meantime, Jamalamadingdong and Bella Fire were on the news today talking about the incident and I’m hoping it will bring good things to us. We need it, guys. We really, really need it.
So, not to beg or anything, but if you’d like to share our GoFundMe campaign, please do. Or consider making a donation yourself. We’ve put so much money, blood, sweat, tears, more blood, even more sweat, and some more blood into this place and we need some positive things to come our way.
1 thought on “Homeless and heartbroken”