These calendar girls pack a mean punch.
The Think Outside the Ring calendar, the brainchild of Simone 'Iron Maiden' Lau, features boxers from Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club.
Photo/JACKLYN ATLAS
Some of the city's toughest female boxers from Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, Canada's first women-only boxing gym, are featured in a new 2012 calendar.
The 'Think Outside the Ring' calendar is the brainchild of Simone "Iron Mayhem" Lau, who lives in the city's west end and trains at the gym.
Lau runs Iron Mayhem Ventures, a new idea and management company that aims to create events and special projects that have positive social impacts and in turn benefit charitable organizations.
"We basically take really awesome ideas and turn them into awesome reality," enthused Lau, who collaborated with her friend and fellow Newsgirl Jacklyn "Jacknife" Atlas on the project.
A downtown resident, Atlas runs her own professional photography business.
After months of talking about doing a calendar, everything finally came together this fall, said Savoy "Kapow!" Howe, the gym's owner.
"I knew it was a good idea. I left it in (Lau's) hands," said Howe, who is 'Miss January' in the calendar.
"(Lau and Atlas) so got it. I think it's important for women to see images of powerful women."
Howe said the empowering photographs in the first Newsgirls calendar give women the strength to stand up for themselves and help them realize there are other options.
A dozen female boxers of all ages, races, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds are featured in the calendar, said Lau, adding they've all been in at least one provincially sanctioned fight.
"As Newsgirls, we're known for real tough boxing. My goal was to create an empowering calendar that highlights the athleticism and the resilience of women," said Lau, who is also the featured boxer in the month of April.
"There's no calendar out there that exhibits the strength of women."
The new calendar, which was officially launched Nov. 5, coincides with Newsgirls' 15th year of existence and the fifth anniversary of its own space on Carlaw Avenue, between Dundas and Gerrard streets.
Each calendar costs $20 and only 500 copies are available for purchase.
Helping survivors
A portion of the proceeds will be directed to the local gym's Shape Your Life program, an initiative that helps female and transgender survivors of violence empower themselves and gain self-esteem through the sport of boxing.
Created in 2007, the program is the result of a partnership between Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, Opportunity for Advancement, The June Callwood Centre for Women and Families and Brock University.
The calendar is being sold at the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, 388 Carlaw Ave.; Good For Her, 175 Harbord St.; Tinto Coffee House, 89 Roncesvalles Ave.; Toronto Women's Bookstore, 73 Harbord St.; and Bloor Street Boxing, 2295 Dundas St. W.
Visit http://ironmayhem.com/tng-calendar-2012/ for more information or to order a calendar online.