Champions for Charity sets new fundraising record with more than $1.5-Million for MacKids
By Jeff Hicks
CAMBRIDGE
Eleven-year-old Lincoln stood in the middle of the boxing ring, squeezing his mom’s right hand. 
That’s when the Brawl at Tapestry Hall, smashing all Champions for Charity fundraising records with more than $1.5-million collected for MacKids, nearly became The Bawl at Tapestry Hall.
The referee raised Michelle Clark’s left hand high in victory as a sold-out crowd of 600 roared.
Clark, teary and joyful, pumped her right hand as it clasped Lincoln’s.
Mother and son locked in an emotional embrace as Michelle’s feisty no-relation opponent — mother of two Sophia Clark — slow-applauded in knowing admiration.
This is why Mandy Bujold’s Champions for Charity exists and thrives.
To send 20 first-time boxers and community leaders to the ring to deliver renewed hope for moms and sons and dads and local families in need of the best health care in the world.
Michelle and son Lincoln hugged hard for an exquisite moment.
Just a fighting mom, hands wrapped tight in red and dripping in sweat, and her embattled son, in a white golf shirt and sneakers.
Both grinned like struggles of the past didn’t matter and future triumph was a foregone conclusion.
No cystic fibrosis. No shopping bags of daily medication.
No every-third-month trips to McMaster Children’s Hospital to help fend off a lung and digestive system disease that threatens to cut short Lincoln’s life.
The beauty of this moment existed outside of time and life’s trials.
“He’s my whole reason why,” Michelle said of Lincoln, her voice cracking with a mother’s love.
“I did it for him.”
Only minutes before, Lincoln strolled up to the ring with his mom. In his arms, he carried dozens of red roses along the red carpet. Once, a kid struggled to pronounce cystic fibrosis. It came out ’65 Roses’. That became Michelle’s fight name.
Her teenage daughter Aubree was one of 4,800 watching her mom fight on livestream. Lincoln sat ringside, cheering his mom on to victory.
“Keep going, mom,” Lincoln said, reaching for the bottom rope. “You can do it, mom.”
How many times had she said the exact same thing to him? Too many times.
All the pageantry of the night’s 10 bouts swirled into Lincoln’s piercing eyes.
The face fans waved furiously for top fundraiser Craig Seibel, who faced a waving flag and pounding drum of Armenia pride from Paul Bostajian.
The top-hatted fight-goers in bright orange and baby blue Dumb-and-Dumber suits.
The human boxer statue who watched from the mezzanine above, all body-painted in gold only blinking occasionally to tip off his true living nature.
The way Jennifer Appleby Vines, the CEO of a company that makes boxes for the food industry, heel-danced out to meet Lynne MacDonald, the oldest female fighter in four editions of Champions for Charity, in an opening fight featuring a never-ending flurry of fists.
Or cancer-survivor Art Janzen’s defiant persistence against bottom-line banker Darren Johnston. How financial planner Justin Hamilton bulldogged his way past the long reach of business-savvy Mitch Wilson.
“He was a freight train that just kept advancing,” Wilson said.
A freight train Wilson had to dodge after prancing into the ring to the ear worm tune of Pink Pony Club, a choice of his four daughters. His robe featured four pink ponies.
Faune Lang, another cancer survivor, had her four kids in mind as she fought hard against Alicia Panetta, the top female fundraiser of the night with more than $50,000 for MacKids.
She went home after her fight and fell asleep next to her top fundraiser title belt.
“It’s not the best thing to cuddle in the world, but it sure felt like it was last night,” she said.
Seibel, the top male fundraiser and owner of ACL Steel, collected $200,000 for the cause.
“It was worth every punch,” he said.
Seibel took more than a few jabs from Bostajian. Just like Downtown Kitchener arts and culture manager Arnold Yescas took from insurance guy Wes MacDonald.
But Yescas honoured his Nicaraguan heritage by hopping into the ring in style as Bad Bunny blared a latin tune and downtown Kitchener dancers cavorted.
“I’m latin and very proud of it,” said Yescas, who was joined by his 11-year-old son Miguel. “Why not get the energy going?”
Like the energy that shone through the fight-of-the-night between Eugenia Phelan and Deidre Hatton. Or the raw ferocity of Dan “Texas Ranger” Nagle and Mitchell Blaine, capped off by true post-fight sportsmanship. Who can forget the Chuck Norris look-a-like Nagle entering the ring as a cowgirl cracked a fire-cracker loaded whip?
Showmanship beforehand. Sportsmanship after.
All leading up to the old-school slugfest between Jeritt Raney and Brad Fulton. Punishing.
All while raising $1.5-Million for MacKids and $77,005 to help the Waterloo Region Health Network purchase an additional echocardiogram machine for its paediatric clinic.
The three previous Champions for Charity events combined raised over $1-million for MacKids.
“I am mind-blown by the $1.5-Million for MacKids,” said Sherri Bocchini, Vice-President of Philanthropy and Partnerships for Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation.
“Thanks you to everyone in this incredible community for making a difference.”
A new state-of-the-art, first-in-Canada CT scanner will be purchased with the money raised.
The Champions for Charity, after 16 weeks of training and a fight night to remember, have come through for kids and families like never before.
“Every single one of us did something incredible because we believed in ourselves,” Panetta said. “We trained. We sacrificed. We stepped outside of our comfort zone a cause that’s greater than ourselves.”
For Bujold, on the eve of the two-time Olympian’s induction into the Ontario Boxing Hall of Fame, was gratified to see the Champs reach new heights in fundraising and in the boxing ring.
Sponsors. Volunteers. Partners. Fighters.
“Thank you for believing in this and truly helping us create something very special.” Bujold said.
Now, fight night is over. A new crew of Champions for Charity can sign up for next year.
This year’s Champs are alumni now. They raised the bar high for those that follow.
“Just before walking in there, it was like, ‘What am I doing?’ ” said Clark, a veterinary technician in Kitchener.
“After I left, I was like, ‘I wanna do that again.”
www.champsforcharity.ca
