Jaime Wilson, Champion for Charity, has ‘moving’ experience working with McMaster doctors
By Jeff Hicks
WATERLOO —
Jaime Wilson was frozen in a Iceberg Alley trance.
A tall, North Atlantic popsicle — swirling azure hues glaring down over ferocious whitecaps of the Labrador Current — towered above the Cambridge native and her teammate.
Their kayak wouldn’t budge. They had gotten too close to the frigid Greenland castaway.
They suddenly found themselves lodged on a Fogo Island ice floe.
This June 2017 charity adventure, to support military veterans and their families, had come to a grinding halt on the submerged torso of a glacial Goliath off Newfoundland.
“It’s really deceiving,” recalled Wilson, now the Vice President of Philanthropy at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener and one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity training to make her boxing debut in The Brawl at Tapestry Hall on April 4.
“There’s so much beneath the surface you don’t see. What we could see was just a tiny tip of the iceberg. But as we moved closer, we ended up getting stuck.”
Wilson’s guide came to the rescue of the trapped kayakers, helping wiggle their craft free.
Then, with three pairs of gloves on her hands, Wilson looked up. She dare not touch the iceberg with bare fingers in the deathly cold.
The stunning sight of the iceberg before her was enough.
“It’s the beauty of nature,” she said. “It’s just so surreal.”
But what is hidden beneath the surface can be formidable.
Months of hard training few will see has begun for Bujold’s Champions for Charity. They’ll toil and sweat in the dark mornings and dim evenings as April 4 approaches.
They’ll fundraise too, these community leaders and determined professionals, as this array of first-time fighters aim to raise another $500,000 for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation.
If successful, Champions for Charity will top $1-million for McMaster over 3 fundraising events putting true community heavyweights in trunks and headgear for a great cause.
For Wilson, helping kids in her home community is worth the risk of a clout to the jaw.
That’s why Wilson returned home, after professional time in big cities New York and Toronto, about four a half years ago. Her son Henry, nine, has found a hoops home in the land of NBA star Jamal Murray. Henry can’t wait to put a basketball net in his driveway.
But life is no easy layup for many kids.
Wilson’s partner Derek has personal experience helping a child fight long and hard to overcome cancer.
When kids get help from the people and professionals around them, they can thrive.
“For me, it’s about community,” said Wilson, a Waterloo resident and former chief executive officer of Childhood Cancer Canada, which raised and granted money for children’s hospitals across the country — including McMaster.
“I was born and raised here. I live and work here. I work in philanthropy. I know what it takes to care for our community. It’s the community that needs to step up and do that. I want to do that for my son. For my friend’s kids. For my neighbour’s kids. For me, it’s really about that connectedness and coming together to support the health of all our our kids in this community.”
So Wilson will step into the ring and embrace the risk that lies beneath the surface.
Blue Team coach and national boxing champ Kaitlyn Clark will be her guide on this sweet science excursion. Wilson will put herself to tall iceberg test again.
Just like when she climbed a Mount Kilimanjaro in 2012.
Or built igloos on her way to the magnetic north pole in 2016.
The sweat is worth it. In the past, she got to know the doctors at McMaster and the amazing job they do in the background for kids and families. Eyes wide open, she was the seen the skill and empathy, in the service of our kids, up close.
“It’s quite moving,” Wilson said.
What lies beneath the surface is often remarkable in a community that cares.
To support Jaime, click here.
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