Jaimi Ferreira gets a second chance to be a Champion for Charity and fight for McMaster Children’s Hospital
By Jeff Hicks
KITCHENER —
Jaimi Ferreira is back.
Just like the tonsils that were taken out but grew back when she was little.
Ferreira, cheerfully stubborn and pleasingly pesky, is a Champion for Charity once more.
Five months ago, she tried out — but wasn’t chosen — to join Mandy Bujold’s 18 community members to train and fight to raise funds for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation.
But less than a month after being punched in the face in her first bout to benefit Team Destiny’s amateur boxers, she’ll climb into the ring for McMaster after all.
She’ll fight in Erica Tennenbaum’s spot — a annoying arm injury keeping a disappointed Tennenbaum out of The Brawl at Tapestry Hall — on the Red Team on April 12th.
She’s a ferocious Champions for Charity fill-in who is ready fill in the Blue Team’s Esther Kong.
“I’m kind of a last-minute thing,” said Ferreira, a human resources civilian with the Waterloo Regional Police Service who’s had her tonsils out twice.
Last minute? Hardly. But the rec league volleyballer has smashed her way into the boxing ring.
Suddenly, after beginning her sweet science journey in January, she’s an insatiable sucker for pugilistic punishment. Her first fight was a “great experience” — even if her game plan went out the window with the bell and she took a St. Patrick’s Day Eve wallop on the chin.
“You don’t really feel it in the moment,” she said. “I felt it the next day. My jaw was a little bit sore. And my cheekbone. She must have got me good.”
Was there ever any doubt Ferreira would return with a vow to be better, not bitter?
She endured vegemite sandwiches in Australia for a year. She came back.
She took the tube in London, England for four bangers-and-mash seasons. She came back.
Thankfully, you can’t get rid of Ferreira easily.
When she was 11, she won Judo gold in her first competition. There was no one in her weight class so she took down a girl who was 10 pounds heavier.
So when her friend Christina Sibley made the Red Team initially the delightfully determined Ferreira wasn’t daunted. She got into the ring for a different cause a day after the Ides of March anyway. Then, a week later, Sibley and Bujold asked her about taking a last-minute stab at Champions for Charity in place of Tennenbaum. There was never any doubt she would.
“Ya reckon?” Ferreira would say like she just returned from the Outback.
Her husband Eric, a video game kind of guy, just shakes his head. He’s taken to boxing training but has little interest in ring action. Her son Parker, 9, can’t wait to take American sign language lessons with his mom after the bout.
Still, getting a real Fight Night encounter with Kong is fitting as the Champs have raised more than $325,000 for McMaster.
“Esther and I tried out together,” said Ferreira, a former youth addictions worker. “We sparred together during tryouts. I remember leaving that day and both of us saying, ‘That was a lot of fun. I hope we get picked together. So it’s funny that now I’m in a spot where I’m fighting her.”
Ferreira is also fighting hard for McMaster.
Her mom Michelle has gotten so much wonderful help from the empathetic staff there since adopting her brother Victor in 2011. Victor, 14, has Down Syndrome and autism. Victor is tube-fed and uses a walker to get around. Michelle is grateful for McMaster’s help.
“She’s had to go through all those appointments as a single mom,” Ferreira said. “It means a lot to her and me that she’s had such great help from McMaster caring for Victor. It means a lot when staff are showing that kind of care and compassion.”
So Jaimi Ferreira is back. There was never any doubt.
To support Jaimi and Erica, click here.
