‘Comfort Zone’ Abandoned
Christina Sibley, police detective and Champion for Charity, eager to grow in fundraising ring
GUELPH —
By: Jeff Hicks
Six words are seared into Christina Sibley’s brain.
Growth happens outside your comfort zone.
Her wife Donna, a former national champion boxer, spoke them years ago when the two police officers first met at work. They are undeniably true. They are Christina’s favourite.
“Whenever I’m struggling or think something is hard, I think about those words,” the 35-year-old detective constable for Waterloo Regional Police Services said, fittingly, on Boxing Day.
“Yeah, this is going to help me grow and I’m going to do it.”
So the Kitchener-raised Sibley will pull up the Wonder Woman socks her mom Wendy got her for Christmas and step into the boxing ring as one of Mandy Bujold’s Champions for Charity.
On April 12th at Tapestry Hall in Cambridge, she will fight to raise money for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation. Just like 19 other first-time fund-raising fighters.
There is no comfort zone for her in the ring.
This is not the robbery unit, where Sibley has spent three years helping victims and putting bad guys in jail. Nor is it the break-and-enter and auto-theft team she spent two years with.
This is newbie vs. newbie, fledgling fighter vs fledgling fighter — with charitable justice doled out one jolting jab at a time for a great cause.
“It’s exhilarating and it’s satisfying,” Sibley said of her detective work.
“You feel like you’re doing some good for the community.”
That’s one familiar reason she was drawn to become a Champion for Charity after hearing Bujold’s inspiring talk before the Waterloo Regional Police Association.
The doing-good-for-the-community seed was planted pleasantly with Mandy’s trademark sweet talk of the Sweet Science for charity.
Growth is about to happen. The comfort zone is in the distance.
Sibley doesn’t care for the spotlight. She’s leapt into it anyway.
She’s a self-described perfectionist embracing the fundraising glare and an unfamiliar sport. She is anything but a gregarious glad-hander or a peerless pugilist.
Don’t worry, Donna tells her. She’ll get used to getting punched in the face.
“I’m starting from scratch,” she said. “I guess I like a challenge.”
So Sibley will to go out of her comfort zone for a children’s hospital that has meant so much to the people around her. She suddenly finds herself hanging up posters at work and prioritizing social media updates.
And purchasing a heavy bag at Canadian Tire.
And wearing Donna’s musty old wraps and gloves.
Funny thing was, Sibley once eyed becoming a teacher like her mother — until she had a Ride-Along in a police car that left her smitten with police work.
That Ride-Along turned the owner of new Wonder Woman socks towards fighting crime and helping others. This is a Ride-Along too. The destination? Outside her comfort zone.
Sibley’s about to learn some new ropes as training begins in the new year. She’s about to grow.
“Here we go,” she said.
To support Christina, go to champsforcharity.ca
