North Texas Fencing Alliance Fundraises for ECN at Fencing Tournament on Saturday, May 5th, 2012

Tag Archives: USA

The North Texas Fencing Alliance, located in McKinney, TX, USA, hosted the Cinco de Mayo Fundraising Tournament this past Saturday, May 5th, 2012, at which its members fundraised $3,400 to be donated to ECN. This was done through the sale of T-shirts, an auction and the collection of direct donations. Both students and other competition participants gathered donations from parents and other competition attendees and community representatives.

Led by head coach Mr. Aly Khamees, an Egyptian fencing champion who was once ranked #4 in the world, the North Texas Fencing Alliance is one of the best fencing training institutions in the United States. It offers numerous classes for the Dallas-Fort Worth area and its students range in age from youth to adults, with approximately 65 full-time members from highly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Coach Khamees joined the Egyptian National Fencing Team at the young age of 12 years and moved to the US at 21 to begin coaching in 1996.

Coach Khamees is an avid supporter of ECN and we sincerely thank him for his initiative and belief in our cause. He is a rare individual that is an outstanding role model, leading his students by example. He has vowed to make the Tournament an annual event, as well as his fundraising commitment to ECN and other organizations sponsoring children with cancer. Through Coach Khamees, ECN looks forward to hosting more collaborative events with North Texas Fencing Alliance in the future.

 

Hospital 57357 recently hosted “Research Day” with the American Board Certified Doctors for Egypt (ABCDE) and 256 attendees participated, mostly medical students, and recent graduates. Attendees connected with role-models, hospital staff and speakers such as Dr. Mona Mostafa and Dr. El Shinawy.

One of the students, summed up the event best by saying “The most interesting thing regarding the whole day, at least from my point of view,  is that it gave people role-models to measure up against .  Presenters like Dr. Mona Mostafa or Dr. El Shinawy, two of our speakers here in Egypt doing collaborative research with institutions in the US,  came from our very own universities, and were subjected to the very same environment that we want to escape from.  This was the main message I went home with: I don’t have to go to the States or elsewhere and wait to be a big shot before I return back to Egypt and then help building it.  I can, and I should, start today… “