Karl Hale was born in Falmouth, Jamaica, and came to Canada with his mother and two siblings when he was nine.
For more than 10 years Karl has devoted his time and energy to raising money to help build and refurbish schools in Jamaica. His Toronto-based Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation, of which he is founder and chair, has raised more than $400,000 to directly support education projects on the ground in Jamaica, including five new schools.
In the video below Karl and daughter Kalista Hale talk about building schools in Jamaica.
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Hale says it often surprises people to learn he is Jamaican-Canadian, a white man who speaks with no noticeable accent. But Hale reminds people that there are people of many skin colours in Jamaica, and his parents and grandparents had been born there. When his parents separated, his mother brought Hale and his sister and brother to Canada. At 13, he was late to start in tennis compared to many others – his brother, who was 10 years older, had earned a tennis scholarship to Old Dominion University in Virginia.
