Derby Dolls

TWO HOME TEAM FAVORITES WILL DUKE IT OUT ON THE BANKED TRACK JUNE 4^TH.

Los Angeles – Three time champions the Tough Cookies started their 2011 season with a loss to the Varsity Brawlers, breaking their winning streak and showing all other teams that 2011’s championship title could belong to anyone! Raining death from above, Fight Crew started this season off with a loss to the Sirens, ensuring that Saturday June 4^th’ will be a showdown between two teams who are now hungrier than ever to take the lead. Will the Tough Cookies fight back to show everyone that they still dominate? Or will Fight Crew drop enough bombs to leave crumbs scattered on the infield? Saturday June 4^th will be a battle between two teams who both want to walk away winners, with both teams ready to fight till the very last whistle. L.A. Derby Dolls are hosted at the Doll Factory, their home in LA’s Historic Filipinotown.

L.A. Derby Dolls events offer a full range of entertainment off the track, with the Vendor Village featuring art, jewelry and clothes, food from Garage Pizza and Hot Dog on a Stick, and healthy beverages provided by Ex-Drinks. Tecate beer will be served by Alex’s Bar and wine from Murphy-Goode poured strongly by our very own Derby Dolls. The Derby Dolls are also proudly sponsored by Stila Cosmetics, who will also be at the game treating our fans to some pampering. We would also like to welcome our newest sponsor for the 2011 season, Jack Daniel’s mixed drinks. There will be live musical entertainment at half time and raffle tickets will be sold during the game for a wide selection of prizes.

Tickets are now available to purchase at www.derbydolls.com/la. General admission tickets are $20; VIP tickets are $40.00. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and close at the end of half time. This is a 21 and over event, featuring beer and wine. The Doll Factory is located at 1910 Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026 (between Alvarado and Union). General parking is available for $8 at Silver Lake Medical Center, 1711 West Temple (near the intersection of Temple and Union), one block east of the Doll Factory. Please have your ID, leave your cameras/recording devices at home, and note that all concessions and most vendors accept cash only.

With the Lakers out and the local baseball teams hovering around .500, why not try something different to get your So Cal sports fix? The Roller Derby is alive and well here in Los Angeles with the LA Derby Dolls. A photo from the Fight Crew vs. Varsity Brawlers on the banked track of the L.A. Derby Dolls' Doll Factory in Los Angeles, Calif., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2010. (Marc Campos, L.A. Derby Dolls)

(CLICK HERE TO READ FULL STORY)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When she looks out across a banked wooden track where a couple dozen girls in crash helmets and roller skates are pushing, shoving, slipping and falling, Rebecca Ninburg sees a lot more than just kids having a raucous good time.

"That's the future right there. That's the next generation," says Ninburg, better known in the roller derby world as Demolicious, co-founder of the Los Angeles Derby Dolls skating league.

As if to make her point, 8-year-old Little RegulateHer, one of the stars of the Junior Derby Dolls, bursts out of the pack and, in a scene worthy of the film "Whip It," goes on to lap every other skater on the track.

After jamming her way past her much bigger opponents for five quick points ("I'm little so they don't see me coming," she explains later), the 4-foot-6-inch whirlwind stumbles, takes a hard face-first fall, gets back up and goes around again.

Roller derby, once a comical exhibition dismissed by athletic purists as not much more than pro wrestling on skates, has made another comeback. Only this time it's a legitimate, female-empowering sport for little girls, and there's nothing fake about the blocking and bumping. Or the pushing, shoving and occasional clobbering. As well as the bumps and bruises that go with it.

(CLICK HERE TO READ FULL STORY)

On Saturday, May 14, the L.A. Derby Dolls hosted a Big Sunday Weekend skating clinic for Children of the Night. The three-hour workshop focused on teaching young men and women how to skate, while emphasizing the importance of teamwork and physical fitness as a means toward personal empowerment.

Children of the Night is a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing and empowering children who have been forced into prostitution. This is the third year that they have worked with L.A. Derby Dolls on Big Sunday. To learn more about Children of the Night, please visit http://www.childrenofthenight.org/.

Big Sunday is an annual spring weekend when thousands of people from Southern California, of all ages and all backgrounds, work together at hundreds of nonprofits, schools and other agencies that need their help. Big Sunday Weekend is one of the largest regional community service events in America. To learn more about Big Sunday and volunteer opportunities, please visit www.bigsunday.org.

After skating, community service is the most important thing that the L.A. Derby Dolls do. The Dolls also recently partnered with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles when the L.A. Junior Derby Dolls and the San Diego Juvenile Dollinquents played a double-header fundraiser bout for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, raising more than $2,000.

Other recent community partnerships include the American Diabetes Association, Lambda Legal (civil rights for the LBGT community and those living with AIDS) and many more.