We are the Kalmar Union, a brand new national team representing the five Nordic countries in the upcoming open-gender roller derby World Cup. We are here to inspire and encourage the growth of roller derby in the north. 

The last six months we've met for tryouts and training in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, organised a whole big tournament and found the squad who will show the potentials of the Nordic nations roller derby against the world:

Meet our staff

Our charter are lead by our one and only Queen, Margrete III, who you may know as Mandariina on track for Helsinki Roller Derby. She's assisted on the bench by Oslo Roller Derby's Binna and Dawson. 

Also going to France: Our management trio coordinating a team spanning across five countries, making sure everyone get the clothes, food and support they need to be their best. Toget, PRincess and Eve will also make sure you get a part of the World Cup experience even if you're watching from home.

What do we need?

Every one of our players and staff have chipped in substantial funds to cover uniforms and travel costs for five tryouts/practise weekends. We allocated a portion of our limited funds to build European open-gender derby by organising a tournament for four national teams in March (see pictures from The Punch). As a new team we know we will not be able to cover nearly as much of the expenses for our team members as we'd like. Want to help us? Every little bit of support helps, and right now we have three ways for you to help:

• Donate or find a reward you like in this fundraiser
• Donate directly via PayPal (we're piggybacking on Ladybugs, if it says Jesper you're in the right place)
• Order merch through this form, to be picked up at World Cup, Swedish finals, or from one of our team members directly (in Reykjavik, Helsinki, Tampere, Gothenburg, Tromsø, Oslo, Aalborg, Aarhus or Copenhagen)

If you're a knitter you can also buy Thingy sauna hat knitting pattern on Ravelry.

Kalmar Union's goals

1. Show the potentials of the Nordic nations roller derby against the world
2. Strengthen the bonds within our sport across borders
3. Use this collaboration to build and nurture our own leagues

Is it working? We're already seen positive effects of building a stronger open-gender derby network in the North! Being open to everyone is something more and more leagues in the Nordics are trying out (and thriving with), and we see a clear increase in all-gender game opportunities too. Building a community is not a six-month project, but a continuous process. We're here for it, with concrete plans to build on our World Cup participation.

This fundraiser goes to Oslo Roller Derby, one of the leagues with members in the World Cup squad. Our PayPal option belongs to Copenhagen Ladybugs, another league represented on our charter. Be assured: The money raised will go to the right place!