Leah Strong
2025 LEAVING THE NEST SENIORS
Leah Strong was practically born with a sword in her hand. Every stick or stack of Legos was a sword to be wielded. When we relocated from Idaho to Oregon, and met Maria Copelan, she offered to take Leah to fence with her. Leah fell even more in love with swordplay, and after Fencing Beginner summer camp at the age of 7, she’s been a part of the NWFC family ever since.
When she discovered epee and the wonders of the Double Touch and no right of way, she was even more hooked. In addition to physical fitness, fencing has also played a large part over the years in Halloween (she dressed up as a “Gold Medal Olympic Fencer”), 4-H (she gave speeches at County Fair multiple years regarding fencing), and school (it counted as PE in middle school, and we were able to sneak weapo… er, “sports equipment” into school for an oral report). Finding out that NWFC was moving less than half a mile from our house a few years ago was cause for great celebration.
Fencing has taken us to Seattle, Vancouver, even Cleveland, but the best thing about fencing at Northwest were the summer camps. Being able to do nothing but fence every day for a week is still one of her favorite things. The support of her friends through COVID, high school, and other stressful changes have been invaluable to her. She may not have been fencing as much lately, but NWFC is always going to be a safe space, even though she comes home covered with bruises.
Leah plans on sticking around, going to PCC in the fall.
