Fund campaign gives boxing club a fighting chance
Filmmaker’s documentary promotes GoFundMe initiative for Napper’s Boxing Club
There’s a lot of history inside the walls of Napper’s Boxing Club in Welland.
Old fight posters and newspaper clippings of past triumphs line the walls, trophies sit on shelves paying testament to the 41 years the club has stood on Park Street, building champions and changing the lives of those who have walked through its doors.
While, thanks to an environment of community and positivity first built by club founder Ray Napper Sr., club membership is alive and well, the steady march of time has not been entirely kind to the club. Paint has peeled, ceilings have cracked and windows have deteriorated even as the club has built generation after generation of pugilists.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done,” said Ray Napper Jr., the third generation of his family to run the club, explaining the club’s ongoing GoFundMe campaign to raise $10,000 for much needed repairs to the building.
Recently the campaign hit the halfway mark with $5,000 in donations.
Windows need to be replaced, the kitchen roof is leaking, and the gym owner has long wanted to purchase an automated external defibrillator, especially as older patrons, some in their 70s, line up among the bags and ropes of the gym alongside a new generation of boxers, boys and girls aged as young as six.
“It’s getting more important,” said Napper Jr., who said the club is still going strong, despite a shortfall of capital for repairs.
He said about five new children a week come through the doors, each being greeted with the same positive atmosphere fostering
‘‘ “There isn’t a better sport you could do at that age, you teach integrity, you teach respect.”
RAY NAPPER JR. Napper’s Boxing Club head coach
discipline that has kept the club so strong over the years.
“There isn’t a better sport you could do at that age,” said Napper Jr., adding, “you teach integrity, you teach respect.”
New equipment is needed for younger boxers, as is new safety gear and repairs to the club’s ring.
Filmmaker Christian Wiebe knows all too well the impact the club can have on a child or adolescent.
He first walked through the doors on Park Street at age 17, struggling to find his place in the world.
Napper’s, he said, gave him discipline and work ethic that he carries to this day.
It’s the reason that last year he poured 500 hours of his time into creating a documentary on the gym. It’s also the reason he has attached the film to the GoFundMe effort, offering it for free on the donation page.
“At the core of it, it was my way of giving back to Napper’s,” said Wiebe, now 29.
The filmmaker was quick to say that he, like many others, owes the club for the sense of community it has provided.
“The Napper’s club is really the heart of Welland,” he said, adding he hopes the film will inspire the community to step up and support the club and its family-like environment.
Napper Jr. said that atmosphere won’t be going anywhere any time soon, even if the building gets a facelift and a new generation of boxers move in.
“People come and people go, but the atmosphere stays the same down here,” he said.
To view the film, or to donate, visit www.gofundme.com/nappers.