Photo Courtesy of Jamie Campbell's Twitter
A lineup card and ticket stub from a Toronto Blue Jays game on May 7, 2011 were the items Jamie Campbell used to raise money for the Medicine Hat Women's Shelter Society in early February.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter is one of many shelters and organizations across Canada to benefit from Jamie Campbell’s baseball collection.
The host of Blue Jays Central on Sportsnet has been raising funds for charities and non-profit organizations by garnering donations on pieces of sports memorabilia he has collected over his near 30-year broadcasting career.
One of his most recent fundraisers was auctioning off a scorecard and ticket stub from Justin Verlander’s no-hitter on May 7, 2011, with funds donated to the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter.
Campbell spoke with the News while attending a Medicine Hat Tigers game on March 3 ahead of a fundraising dinner in Brooks the next night. He wanted to help women’s shelters because of how important they are in society, and chose the local organization because he wanted to donate to a centre not in a larger city.
“I’m 55 years old and back in the dating world, and quite frankly I’ve heard awful stories from women I’ve gone out with, more often than not,” Campbell said. “That’s frightening, it’s frightening, there are a lot of men out there who choose to disrespect women. So I decided I’ll set my sights on women’s shelters as a way of supporting them.
“I had looked into women’s shelters and their operations and I know in Toronto there are lots of them, there are many places people can go if they need to. I just thought to myself, I wonder if it’s that simple to escape abuse in a small town, and I wouldn’t know that. I decided that instead of trying to raise money for large-centre abuse facilities, I would target smaller places.”
The lineup card/ticket stub raised a $275 donation for the women’s shelter.
“This was a wonderful and surprise fundraiser on our behalf. We’re grateful for Jamie Campbell showing his support for us all the way from Toronto. Funds raised through initiatives like this help us continue to create a safe and welcoming shelter for those fleeing family violence,” Natasha Carvalho, executive director of the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society, said in an email to the News.
Previously, Campbell has supported Indigenous schooling fundraisers and garnered donations for the Leukemia and Lyhmphobia society of Canada. He’s planning on raising more for those organizations, including his bursary for a First Nations community in northern Ontario that raises money for students.
Campbell began treatment in early 2022 for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow and blood that has no known cure. He’s been seizing the day ever since his diagnosis and treatments, thanks to doctors and their research.
“My parents were doing walks for cancer in the ’90s and all that money impacting people like me, and there is treatment for me that’s basically going to keep me alive,” Campbell said. “I’m happy to report that my blood levels have gone right back down being normalized as normal as anyone’s … It’s the same leukemia that Paul Henderson has. I’m alive, I’m enjoying every day, I feel good, so I’ll just keep feeling good as long as I possibly can.”
With renovations at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays Central desk where Campbell and Joe Siddall sit is moving into fair territory. He is hoping, pending Blue Jays approval, to auction off every baseball that comes within catching distance. He also plans on having his baseball glove within reach for every game.
“One thing I’ve learned about sitting with former major league players like Pat Tabler, Darren Fletcher and Gregg Zaun, is that their days of catching a high velocity baseball are long over. They’re all very smart and they just dive out of the way,” Campbell said.
“Joe wants nothing to do with it so I’ll volunteer, I’ll bring my glove, leave it under the set and just try to catch them.”
