Today, Samantha and I drew up the balance sheet of our crowd funding project. Although we have not quite reached the target amount we still can afford to go to China to participate in the world championships. All this thanks to all the contributions we have received. What has  helped us tremendously is the invitation of our former colleague Yao Jie to come to Wuhan, prior to the World Championships, and give a demonstration there together with the other Dutch World Championships participants. In addition to taking care of our accommodation in Wuhan and the journey from Wuhan to Guangzhou, Jie also offered, a generous allowance to contribute to the cost of our participation in the World’s. We appreciate this fantastic gesture of Jie even more since we now have a full week to acclimatize and to exercise and practise. Also on behalf of Samantha I would like to thank everyone again who has supported us the past weeks with a contribution made in cash or otherwise.
Moreover I attended the annual meeting of the Dutch Badminton Association on Saturday the 22nd of June. There the budget for 2014 was also discussed and approved. Part of that budget is of course the expenditure provided on the Elite Sport program. The amount assigned to travel to tournaments didn’t give me a positive feeling and made me realize that also in the (near) future crowdfunding projects will be more than necessary to get sufficient funds for an adequate international competition program. Therefore the bank account number will stay open for donations. The account number is: (IBAN NL81ABNA0) 50.86.01.045 in the name of F. de Ruiter. Swift/BIC code ABNANL2A
Friday we’ll fly to Wuhan via Shanghai for our first week in China. On Friday August 2 we travel on to Guangzhou where the World’s will start on Monday, August 5! Of course you can stay informed about my experiences via Twitter and Facebook . You may look at www.twitter.com/jorritderuiter or on www.facebook.com/deruiterjorrit
Tags: badminton, China, crowdfunding, jorrit de ruiter, NOC*NSF, sponsoring, world championships