Kyle Jackson promises a unique way of marking himself as a 2025 Champion for Charity
By Jeff Hicks
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 one of Mandy Bujold’s 2025 Champions for Charity aiming to raise $500,000 for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Or maybe there’s a barren epidermal desert on one of his gym-toned legs. Maybe opposite the blue-socketed Skeletor skull with kaleidoscopic headdress on his left thigh.
Arm or leg, it doesn’t matter. He will get a boxing tattoo. There is no question.
“100 per cent,” said the 42-year-old Oakville father of three, a Thermon Canada production planner in the global nuclear power plant and industrial heating sector.
“I’ll be getting a boxing tattoo to commemorate the experience.”
The same way he got a Roman gladiator helmet elbow tattoo on a recent trip to Italy.
Or the inquisitive owl sleeve on his left arm. Or the orange-and-black bengal tiger, adorned with blue roses, on his chest-plate masterpiece.
He’ll just visit his Hamilton tattoo artist Warren and look for inspiration on the sweet science design. Maybe it’ll feature Mandy, a two-time Olympian. Or his Blue Team Champions for Charity coach, two-time national champ Kaitlyn Clark.
Perhaps Jackson’s fundraising Brawl at Tapestry Hall ringside entourage for his first fight on April 4 will feature prominently on his pecs or quads.
His six-year-old daughter Ava, a competitive dancer and athletic stickler for hockey and lacrosse, could tap-dance across his calves. Youngest son Nathan, 9, could tackle or flag football across his torso. Oldest son Logan, an 11-year-old with a techie streak, might code or design robots to moonwalk along his abs.
Wife Emily, who helps special-needs families get funding for kids activities they otherwise might not afford, could ride a horse across his hip as a nod to her equestrian upbringing.
Regardless, Warren will make the design wonderfully creative when next they meet for a session of “Tattoo Therapy.”
“I throw him ideas,” Jackson said.
“I show up and he has something ready for me. I just put all the trust in him.”
Jackson’s first tattoo was a little horoscope symbol for his Aries sign. A headstrong ram sits on his left shoulder, like he’s whispering boxing tactics in his cauliflower ear.
Jackson, a softie for fitness challenges and new tattoos, was underage when he got that inking. His older brother Bryan signed as his legal guardian so he could get it done.
“She wasn’t very pleased,” Jackson recalled of his mom Lynda’s reaction.
He’s got another tattoo — featuring the No. 12, hockey sticks and a maple leaf, for his late father Russ.
No. 12 was his dad’s number but he was not the same-name CFL star from The Hammer who also wore No. 12.
Maybe there will be numbers to go alongside fists and furious artistic flurries on Jackson’s next tattoo.
Perhaps, 20 for the 10 bouts brimming with caring community members and business leaders who will take the Tapestry Hall ring benefit the hospital foundation and other kids charities.
Or the $160,000 raised for the foundation in the first Champions for Charity in 2019.
Or the $340,000 last year’s Champs raised.
Maybe the $1-million three-year total this year’s goal of $500,000 will net if reached. Maybe the amount he will raise personally — he’s not Homer Simpson, but gets calls from Homers across the nuclear world — for the hospital through a black-tie night clobbering and caring.
“It’s such a great cause,” Jackson said.
“I can’t even imagine some of these families who have go to through so much their kids at the hospital. I have three kids at home. I just picture myself if they had to go through that. It was an added driver that made me want to pursue this and take on the challenge.”
Being a Champion for Charity will mark Jackson for life. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
He’ll have a new boxing tattoo in time for his next birthday.
“It makes you unique,” Jackson said of his tattoo attraction.
“Everyone has something different.”
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