Champion for Charity Jamie Reaburn takes a swing at The Bard and refuses to ‘play’ on the sidelines
By Jeff Hicks
KITCHENER —
Hamlet? Fascinatingly tortured.
Romeo and Juliet? Laughably melodramatic.
Shakespeare? Verbosely hyped.
“He’s overrated in my books,” said Jamie Reaburn, who pulls no literary punches as one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity and the head of English at Huron Heights high school in Kitchener.
So Reaburn, who celebrated her 43rd birthday with a 5K February run and a ringette game for daughter Cali, will get thee to a boxing ring at Tapestry Hall in Cambridge on the Twelfth Night of April. Rough winds will shake the darling bouts before May.
A chicken-thigh birthday supper from Cali, oldest-daughter Lexie and stepdaughter Anica will be just a cherished cauliflower-and-brussel-sprout memory.
Her first fight — to help raise money for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation — will be no work of fisticuff fiction. The roasted-potato reality of non-fiction is what fascinates Reaburn.
She’d much rather read Brene Brown to her students as she prepares to be Daring Greatly as the woman in the arena. She prefers to step into the ring, her recent autism diagnosis shrugged off as much ado about nothing, with vulnerability and courage.
She’ll take Teddy Roosevelt’s shrewdly inspiring speech over Kate’s tamed kiss any day.
Let will-puzzling self-doubt perish outside the ropes. Et tu, Brene?
“I really like how she challenges us,” Reaburn said of Brown, a researcher into the roots of shame. “When it comes to life, you have to get in the ring and do something.”
That’s how Reaburn, whose father Jeff is an educator, prefers to teach English.
Shakespeare is nice. Poetic, even. But communication is key in life. She wants to teach teens how to express themselves clearly.
“If you’re in a situation where you’re an employee and you have to communicate with a client, how do you sound respectful and then credible in your craft?” Reaburn explained.
“To me, English is not about studying literature, it’s about being a communicator. That’s a lifelong important skill we consistently work on.”
That’s the linguistic lesson she stressed to Nihal Grewal, when he was a student of hers years ago. He’s one of her Champions for Charity coaches for Team Blue now.
Funny how life works. The student, so adept at presentations, becomes the teacher.
“Miss Reaburn was one of the few teachers I was able to open up to because it was easy to tell she genuinely cared,” Grewal recalled of his time in her class. “Rather than use a cookie-cutter approach, she would get to know you personally and connect with you accordingly.”
Connection and communication are Grewal’s coaching specialties now.
“Some of the skills Nihal displayed in the classroom, that he was really good at, really show at boxing now,” Reaburn said.“He’s always been a really good public speaker. He explains things very well. He’s very charismatic and engaging.”
Just like Reaburn’s husband Brad.
Reaburn, once the quiet leader of the Western University women’s softball team, can be shy. Fundraising can be a tempestuous assignment for her, like turning a slow-roller double play. With the gregarious help of Brad — they married last July — she is closing in on her goal for McMaster Children’s Hospital.
Our training revels were not nearly ended as Lexie, 13, got used to wearing Reaburn’s old Western hoodie. Twelfth Night approaches. A substantial pageant nears at Tapestry Hall in Cambridge.
Yvette Raposo, Canada’s first professional ring announcer, will help Reaburn and all the Champions for Charity find the inner fighter within. A raucous Rap-sody for Team Blue, is surely coming.
As someone wrote long ago, nothing will come of nothing. Joy’s soul lies in the doing.
And in getting punched in the face.
“You have to get in the ring,” Reaburn said. “You can’t just live on the sidelines.
To Support Jamie and make a donation to McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation – Click HERE
