Making a Difference in the Ring and the Toronto Community
Meet Savoy Howe. Owner and founder of the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, the city’s only women’s and trans-gendered boxing club, located in the heart of east Toronto. Considered a trailblazer in the Toronto boxing community with over 18 years of experience, Howe is responsible for pioneering one of the fastest growing boxing clubs in the Toronto area.
“I was fairly new to Toronto in 1992 and wanted to learn a form of self-defense,” says Howe. “I tried martial-arts, and while effective, it just didn’t seem right for me. One day I saw a picture of a woman boxing and it struck a chord within me that hasn’t left.”
Howe learned the ropes of boxing at the Toronto Newsboys Boxing Club, formerly located at Broadview and Eastern. With a quickly growing passion and development of skill, she found it hard to believe the lack of involvement of women within the sport. Taking matters into her own hands, she set out to do a small social experiment.
“In 1994 I threw up a bunch of posters promoting a women’s only boxing course,” says Howe. “Truthfully I didn’t know what to expect. Within a month, 40 women had showed up and it took off from there. I haven’t looked back since.”
Howe credits the success of her women’s only boxing center to the professional training and comfortable atmosphere the club provides.
“When you give women and trans their own space, their own gym to train and learn in, you notice a totally different vibe,” says Howe. “You see women let their guard down and become more relaxed, more passionate than they would be in a club surrounded by men.”
The Toronto Newsgirls Club offers a variety of programs that cater to all levels of fitness, including the Recreational Program, which allows women of all ages to learn the fundamentals of boxing (i.e. offense, defense and footwork), without ever getting hit in the head, and the Competitors Class, which is geared to those interested in competitive boxing with small class sizes, a large focus on ring work and one-on-one coaching.
In addition to bridging the gap between females and the sport of boxing, the Toronto Newsgirls Club is an active member of the Toronto community who has found a unique way to give back.
The Shape Your Life program, designed in partnership between Howe, Brock University professor, Cathy Van Ingen and two not-for-profit organizations (Opportunity For Advancement and The June Callwood Center For Women and Families), was created with the goal of providing female survivors of violence with an opportunity to participate in a boxing program, to help them build on their self confidence and develop strength in self-defense.
It’s no secret there’s a link between personal development and fitness, and the Shape of Your Life program has already demonstrated impressive results from its over 250 graduates.
“When someone is a victim of violence it can cause a lot of trauma,” says Howe. “What we’ve found with this program is that it’s allowing victims to increase their confidence, have fun and increase motivation. The results, to this point, have been extremely rewarding for all parties involved.”
Between running her own business, training members of her club and giving back to the Toronto community, you’d think she would be hard pressed to fit anything else into her schedule, but remarkably, Howe remains a highly competitive boxer who has her sights set on gold.
This past year, Howe, along with five other members of the Toronto Newsgirls, qualified for the Canadian Boxing Championships in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, taking place January 26 to 30, 2010. The competition will require the team to fight 12 to 15 times over the five days against other female boxers from across the country.
Aiming to uncover Canada’s top boxing talent, the National Boxing Championships are the prelude to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. With six top tier talents participating from the Toronto Newsgirls Club, there’s a lot of promise and hope for podium positions.
ExerciseToronto.Com wishes them the best of luck in Quebec!
For anyone looking to get a local fix of some live, first class boxing action, events and shows occur regularly at the Toronto Newsgirls Club. The next show is tentatively set for early March, with seven fights scheduled, at an admission fee of $20 per person.
For more information on the Toronto Newsgirls Club, Savoy Howe and the Shape Your Life program visit: http://www.torontonewsgirls.com/
ExerciseToronto.Com Staff
