Reach For The Sky
Champion for Charity Jennifer Appleby Vines makes boxing & fundraising for MacKids a package deal
By Jeff Hicks
WATERLOO —
Jennifer Appleby Vines reached for the sky like she felt a six-shooter in her back.
Sweat trickled off her brow.
She glanced around the Sydfit Health Centre at her Red Team sisters and brothers, all straining mightily in the Rocky victory pose. Everyone held their arms straight up, pointing upwards to the wooden rafters until coaches gave the word it was okay to lower them.
Sixteen weeks of this arm-raised agony to become one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity and walk into Tapestry Hall for your first fight on April 24 to raise money for MacKids.
Four or five early mornings a week. Training hard and noisy. Stretched out in floor planks as coaches place weights on your back. Jabs and crosses till your shoulders scream No Mas!
Then, with these Champs nearing a fundraising goal of $1-Million for McMaster Children’s Hospital, jazz hands to the ceiling till your arms want to fall off.
“You desperately want to drop your arms,” said Appleby Vines, the 53-year-old chief executive officer of Georgette Packaging in Kitchener.
“But you’re not gonna, because you’re part of a team. You’re all in this together. Positive peer pressure, right? Then, it’s this feeling of accomplishment that you’ve gotten through that together.”
This isn’t the dainty footwork of the tap and ballet dancing she grew up with in Oshawa.
Now, Appleby Vines punches with devastating purpose as she strolls into the ring to the hip-hop strains of Fatman Scoop.
Still, there’s a Sweet Science symmetry to her endeavours as a business leader in Waterloo Region and a Champion for Charity.
Boxing for kids and families and health care in the ring.
Boxes for food businesses at work.
Pugilism and punchy packaging. Hand wraps and grip-friendly wrapping.
Fitness after 50 for a competitive heels-dancing mom of two grown kids, guitar-playing Jonah and studious Hannah, and step-mom to fun-loving Sarah.
Her husband Kirk always supports the side quests Sarah rolls her eyes at.
“I thought I was going to be a teacher,” said the Laurier psychology grad. “I really was not interested in business. Now, I’m the CEO of my own company. Life takes you in different directions, right?”
It can take you to the top of a company named after a memorable Mary Tyler Moore character.
It can even take you to the boxing ring, if you let it.
“I’m well aware that our society sort of expects women, as they get older, to fade a little bit, become invisible,” said Appleby Vines, who enjoys competing in heels dancing with its burlesque and athletic vibes. “I push against that.”
Now, the push is on towards Fight Night. Her ring name? The Last Dance.
“Five years ago, if you had told me this is where I’m going to be in my life, I just wouldn’t have believed you. But life throws opportunities at you. You have to grab them.”
And reach for the sky. Till your arms feel like falling off.
To support Jennifer, click here.
Thank you to our Champions Spotlight Sponsor TD Bank. TD sees the challenges women-owned and woman-led businesses face – but we also see, and can help you seize, the opportunities. That’s why we’ve built a Canada-wide team of Women in Enterprise bankers to provide you with the banking advice, tools, and resources to help you confidently build your business. Learn more. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Julie Dimitri, National Manager, Women in Enterprise.
