It was only three years ago when Quiche MeDeadly decided to pursue an activity completely new to her.
Now, it has become her lifestyle.
MeDeadly met some people involved in the sport of roller derby, a women’s contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in a circle. Both teams designate a jammer to attempt to skate around the opposing team in an effort to lap as many skaters as possible.  Teams can also interfere by use of force, hence the contact.
Even though she was new to the idea, MeDeadly loved the atmosphere surrounding it.
“They were all such great, strong and independent women,” MeDeadly said. “I love the whole team sport idea of being together with everyone, and it was a great contact sport
for women.”
MeDeadly got involved with roller derby just after the Chippewa Valley Roller Girls  formed in the fall of 2009.
The CVRG are an organization whose mission is to promote strength and athleticism, positively impact the lives of its members and work together to advance the community, according to its website.
The CVRG is managed and operated entirely by the skaters within the system through numerous committees. The skaters do not get paid, but rather raise their own money to continue the organization.
“All roller derby is by the skater, for the skater,” MeDeadly said.  “We get people donating their money, donating their time and we run on volunteers.”
For the women involved in the CVRG, they make up for being unpaid by rewarding themselves in something else: being given a great place to get a physical workout while at the same time meeting a lot of new people.
Melissa Reynoso, a recent UW-Eau Claire graduate from the business administration program and current administrative manager for two adult family home companies, said she too heard about roller derby through the grapevine.  Like MeDeadly, it has become a huge part of her life, as well, and she said it provides a great opportunity in more ways than one.
“Some people join it for the fitness and some people join, well, because when you get older, there just isn’t much for sports,” Reynoso said. “It’s a great recreational activity for you and it keeps you in shape.”
Not only are roller derby women kept in shape by their sport, they are kept on their toes constantly.  It is one of the only defined contact sports for women, and for Crystal Skramstad, a current worker at Best Buy, it keeps one motivated at all times.
“We don’t stage it, it’s all real,” she said.  “I have bruises to prove it.”
Aside from practices, usually occurring twice a week, and competitions with bouts about once every month, a great deal of fundraising and charity work is done in order to stay afloat.
MeDeadly, a bench coach and production manager for CVRG, said it is vital to get community support and in return, the organization picks a company or organization every month and assists them in a positive way.
“We choose a charity, which is always local,” MeDeadly said.  “We’ll volunteer, maybe (the company of the month) will have an event that we’ll go help at.  We have about one home bout a month, so we’ll present them with a check with all the proceeds.”
Skramstad said it can be just like a full-time job with time commitments to practice, competitions and charity work sometimes stemming to 40 hours a week.
Even though it can be time consuming, Skramstad and Reynoso said joining the CRVG was one of the best decisions they’ve ever made.
“The draw was the competitiveness,” Skramstad said. “That still drives me, but I’ve met most of my best friends on the team, and that’s what keeps me.”
The CVRG are constantly looking for new members, whether those want to be a skater, an official or even a volunteer.  As long as people interested are 21 and qualify for health insurance, they are eligible to be a part of the experience.
“The ages on our team are quite literally 21 to 50,” MeDeadly said. “We have people who are housewives, people who have careers and people who are in college. It doesn’t matter. That’s the beautiful thing about roller derby.”