A dozen of Bay Street’s leading bankers and investors will step into the boxing ring to raise money for charity at the upcoming the 6th Annual Fight for Independence (FFI) boxing event and charity auction.

Like last year, this year’s event will raise funds for The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Emergency Department and Toronto’s Nazareth House, a home for at-risk women and infants.

The event, which has raised more than $750,000 since its inception in 2004, was the brainchild of Bay Street traders, James Beattie, Jackie Walker and Tom Gajer.

“Jackie, Tom and I were reflecting on Christmas and decided we needed to give more back to the community,” says Beattie, head of institutional trading at CIBC. “We met Sister June Dwyer, who runs Nazareth House, and saw the lasting difference she was making in people’s lives.”

After bouncing around a few ideas, Tom proposed a “celebrity” boxing match. “When I heard the idea I told the guys that I knew a lot of people who would pay to watch the two of them duke it out,” remembers Walker, an institutional equity trader at RBC Capital Markets. “We raised enough money that year to give Nazareth House a badly needed new kitchen — and it has just grown from there.”

“When we first got involved in this, our goal was to do what we could to help others who were less fortunate or could use a helping hand,” says Gajer, head of electronic and program trading at RBC Capital Markets. “What we’ve all learned out of this is that is that we’ve benefitted as much, if not more, than those we set out to help. It has been an unbelievably rewarding experience to play a part in helping Sister June and her team do their magic at Nazareth House.”

On the card for the 2009 FFI are four celebrity boxing matches with representatives from 11 different Bay Street firms and three Ontario Amateur boxing bouts.

The event also includes a performance by Alana Bridgewater — the original “Killer Queen” from the hit Queen Musical “We Will Rock You” — and her band.

This year’s event will be held at Steam Whistle Brewing on September 24.

Tickets are available by calling Pamela England at 416.424.4900 or on the Fight for Independence website at www.fightforindependence.com.

IE