20 local business leaders are getting ready to step into the ring to raise donations for McMaster Children’s Hospital On November 14 and 15, over 65 brave souls took their first step towards the ring for this year’s Champions for Charity. Our coaches and trainers put them through a grueling hour-long tryout to see if…
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Champions for Charity Tryouts Bring 70 Community Leaders to Tryouts By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — Gold ribbons flashed and shone in Stephanie Stretch’s tied-back hair. The Kitchener City Councillor, with every pendulum step forward and back, glittered and glowed among 70 community contenders and first-time fighters hoping to shine in the Tapestry Hall boxing…
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Are you ready to step into the ring? Tryouts for Mandy Bujold’s Champions for Charity are scheduled for November 14th and 15th, 2025 in Kitchener. Created by local boxing legend and two-time Olympian Mandy Bujold, Champions for Charity is the premier boxing event for business professionals and community champions with no prior boxing experience to…
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Champions for Charity and The Brawl at Tapestry Hall raises more than $700,000 for Children’s Charities. By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca CAMBRIDGE — John Deans, lanky and peckish, reached towards the Tapestry Hall heavens. He took an imaginary top-hat bow, applauded his fellow first-time fighters and, summoning all the Fred Astaire charm the Dancing with the Stars veteran…
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Champion for Charity John Deans channels his inner Stallone for The Brawl at Tapestry Hall By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca The lion on the big screen roared. Little John Deans, almost 6, settled back into his lumpy Londonderry cinema seat beside his mom Alison and grabbed a mitt-full of buttery popcorn. One word crawled across the screen, 10-storeys high it seemed,…
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Daughter Sadie walks Champion for Charity Jason Hunke into the ring for MacKids By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca AYR — A brown-eyed girl with a mischievous smile has a vice-grip on her dad’s heart. She’ll wear a flowing blue dress Fight Night as she walks her father, Jason Hunke, into the boxing ring at the centre…
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Champion for Charity Jill Lawrie ready to take a punch for MacKids — in fact, she already has! By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca CAMBRIDGE — Keep your hands up. Always. Or get punched in the face. That’s a free boxing lesson to keep in mind as The Brawl at Tapestry Hall unfolds on April 4 with…
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Champion for Charity Jen Ziegler ready to defend home plate for the Red Team and MacKids KITCHENER — The freight train wore cleats and charged hard from third base. Jen Ziegler flung her catcher’s mask off and held her hallowed ground at home plate. Steal home on Ziegler, future real estate agent extraordinaire? Not on…
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Champion for Charity Haley McIntosh saw ‘out-of-this-world’ care for son Wyatt at McMaster Children’s Hospital By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca CALEDONIA — Haley McIntosh, professional number-cruncher and mother of two, will be terrified. But her slow, sombre march to the squared circle will be punctuated by an entrance dirge — Johnny Cash’s God’s Gonna Cut You Down…
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Lots of love, lots of chirps at first-ever Champions for Charity Weigh-in By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca CAMBRIDGE — Hugs. Fist bumps and flexes. Verbal jabs. Wednesday’s Weigh-in and Press Conference for Mandy Bujold’s Champions for Charity had it all. One of the 20 first-time boxers — who’ve collectively raised $575,000 and council for McMaster Children’s Hospital —…
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