Jeritt Raney ready to make his gutsy boxing debut for MacKids and Champions for Charity By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — A throaty horn blares through town every summer morning like a bellowing alarm clock. The Chi-Cheemaun, the Big Canoe, announces it is getting ready to ferry from the Tobermory tip of Bruce Peninsula across open waters…
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Art Janzen leaves cancer behind him to become a Champion for Charity By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca WATERLOO — Art Janzen inhaled deeply. One of his 57-year-old ribs ached. A punch he took during boxing training as one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity left the partner and project manager at Menno S. Martin Contractor gasping for breath. Much…
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Champion for Charity Mitch Blaine embraces adrenaline surge of helping local kids hospitals By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — A spectral mist floated into the invigorating alpine air above Alta Lake. Almost seven years ago, the glacier water was frigidly foreboding and enchanting all at once. Mitch Blaine, elbows up and surrounded by hundreds of…
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Champion for Charity Faune Lang is a fierce mom-of-four fighting for MacKids and all kids By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca BADEN — Five years ago, life unleashed a dizzying combination on Faune Lang. Cervical cancer. Surprise pregnancy. A rare lung condition for her unborn child. Low blow. Jab of joy. Lower blow. But the mother of…
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Whatever the MacKids choose — even the Paw Patrol theme — Mitch Wilson will walk out to as a Champion for Charity By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca DUNDAS — The song selection is out of his hands. Or his paws. Mitch Wilson, one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity, will leave it up to the…
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Arnold Yescas channels brash Nicaraguan boxer to fight for Champions for Charity and MacKids By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca KITCHENER — Ricardo Mayorga once held up a chicken leg as he chowed down during a Las Vegas weigh-in. “He was a scrapper,” laughed Arnold Yescas — one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 community leaders ready to step…
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Eugenia Phelan, Champion for Charity fighter, cherishes a life-long bond with boxing By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca BEAMSVILLE — At 4:30 a.m., the bedside alarm blares with the feral ferocity of a clout to the jaw. Two minutes later, a weary Eugenia Phelan rises. Music? You’ve got to be kidding. “Just a hardcore, in-your-face alarm to…
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Cambridge’s Justin Hamilton eager to punch for MacKids, embrace hard knocks headed his way By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca WATERLOO — A Rocky vision in tattooed technicolour bursts from between Justin Hamilton’s shoulder blades. Not an Italian Stallion ink splotch of a fictional film fighter, though. The Cambridge-raised Champion for Charity instead wears beautiful body art of the Rocky Mountains…
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Paul Bostajian eager to take a bite out his Champions for Charity challenge By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca CAMBRIDGE — There’s a shark circling in the water. Welcome to the predatory jaws of Paul Bostajian’s aquatic nightmare. The self-described “adrenaline junkie” — one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity taking a first crack at boxing…
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Champion for Charity Alicia Panetta eager to fight and fundraise for MacKids By Jeff Hicks www.champsforcharity.ca WATERLOO — Little Finnigan— fresh from blowing out four candles on his birthday cupcakes— danced around an imaginary ring in front of the Christmas tree. His pink piggy costume only emboldened his nimble footwork. Finnigan — whose middle name…
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