LAKEWOOD—
A Lakewood roller derby league strapped on the pads and proceeded to pound on each other Sunday in support of a charity that takes care of police officers.Audra Laymon, who's roller derby name is "Teeny Mussolini", is co-captain of the Trampires of the Dockyard Derby Dames league, and she says they came up with the idea at the end of last season to raise money for the Lakewood Police Independent Guild, and decided to start off this season with the event.
"We're like most of the community, moved to act and to do something for the police officers who have not only done a lot for the community," says Laymon, "but also specifically kept our bouts here safe."
The fund has been in the spotlight a lot lately, most recently with the murder of Pierce County Sheriff's Deputy Kent Mundell, and the killings of four Lakewood police officers, Mark Renninger, Ronnie Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards inside a coffee shop in Lakewood on November 29th.
Laymon says after those events, they started talking in the league about how they could help best and once the idea took root, it became clear that many of the ladies in the league were specifically connected to several of the officers who were killed, including Tina Griswold.
"Tina had actually worked at some of our bouts last season," said Laymon, "and it made sense to us because of our connection to those specific officers, and in a larger sense, as we thought about what the law enforcement in our area has done for our bouts and the community."
People who wanted to come watch the derby at the Pierce College Health building on Sunday were asked for a $10 donation at the door, and also had a chance to buy specially made T-shirts for the event.
Laymond says usually for each bout, the league chooses a local organization to donate a portion of proceeds to, but this is the first time all the proceeds are going to one specific location.
"It all come together in a really spirited, encouraging, inspiring way to make it happen," said Laymon, "we found out about the work the LPIG was doing, for the families, and the victims, and just the police officers in this area and we knew that this was a cause we could get behind and we wanted to support them in their work."
To learn more about the Dockyard Derby Dames, go to dockyardderbydames.com and to donate to the Lakewood Police Independent Guilt, head to their website, www.lpig.us.
