Champion for Charity Shannon Gerryts shares the secret to training horses, purple gorillas and herself By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca GUELPH — Shannon Gerryts, 46, has been horse-smitten since she was six years old. That’s when her dad Gary bought her a tiny bay pony, a Welsh cob mare named Blacks Victoria. “Vicki” could be a…
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Paul Sousa leader of the Champions for Charity pack when it comes for fundraising for MacKids By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — Syd Vanderpool scanned the 10 future boxing beasts before him. It was Day 1 of Champions for Charity training and the Red Team coach, a former belt-wearing pro pugilist, wanted to know which ferocious animal…
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Champion for Charity Harmony Voisin ready to throw all 6 punches for MacKids By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — Harmony Voisin lowered her fists and stared at her coaches blank-faced. “You’re telling me there’s six punches in boxing?” said Voisin, dripping with sweaty disbelief. For the first few weeks of training as one of Mandy…
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Champion for Charity Matt McHugh plans to paint the ring red — as in Red Team — on fight night By Jeff Hicks champsforcharity.ca WATERLOO — The sweet science of painting, like boxing, requires two-fisted stamina. “Strong forearms, steady hand,” said master brush-slinger Matt McHugh, one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity who will enter the…
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Champion for Charity Beth Borody mines McMaster memories of her son Judah’s hospital stay By Jeff Hicks champsforcharity.ca HAMILTON — The race — The Cuteness 500 — was on. Judah, cherubic Bam-Bam cheeks with a blond Pebbles hair-do, pulled up to the imaginary starting line, IV stand in tow, on orange tricycle No. 24. Beside him, his…
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Champion for Charity Meghan Snyder recalls the ‘compassion’ of McMaster Children’s Hospital By Jeff Hicks champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER There’s a black band wrapped around Meghan Snyder’s heart. It matches the tattoo she got last year to sear the memory of her lost son Logan into her right bicep. Adorned by first-love lilacs, from Meghan and husband John.…
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From the Grammys to Champions for Charity, Thompson Tran in tune with helping kids in the ring By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — Beyoncé, wearing a rose-coloured designer gown and Egyptian goddess earrings, rolled up in a golf cart. “Right to the front of the red carpet line,” laughed Thompson Tran, recalling his B.C. rock…
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Jeff Van Gyssel turns life’s 2nd chance to his 1st Champions for Charity fight in the ring By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca NEW HAMBURG — The radio crackled. Jeff Van Gyssel, drugs and a two-four in his pickup truck, lent a weary ear as heaviness suffocated the 28-year-old construction supervisor. Darkness engulfed him as he sat…
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Kyle Jackson promises a unique way of marking himself as a 2025 Champion for Charity By Jeff Hicks ChampsforCharity.ca OAKVILLE — Kyle Jackson has an empty patch of skin on his right forearm. It would be perfect for his 26th tattoo — an ink-etched tribute to earning a coveted place in the fundraising ring as…
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Allan Cayenne is ‘fired up’ to be part of the burning Champions for Charity legacy By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — Mandy Bujold swung the wooden mallet like a two-time Olympian looking for a knockout. Her boxing coach, Syd Vanderpool, held the spigot tight to the Oktoberfest keg as Bavarian beer flew through the Carl…
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