Look how every now and again Jiu-Jitsu scores a big goal for the community.

Gracie Barra’s brand of uniforms GB Wear ordered 2,000 Lycra rash guards and 1,200 pairs of shorts from US company Grounded Athletics, but the pieces all came with a tiny defect.

Rather than get all ruffled up about it, the folks at the school founded by Carlos Gracie Jr. decided to donate the garments to youths in need.

“First we and Grounded Athletics decided to donate the clothes to some outreach program dealing with sports, martial arts or aquatics, to make the most of them being made out of Lycra,” recounted Marco “Piu-Piu” Joca.

“Things got even better, though, and we ended up striking up a partnership with a Guatemalan project working with kids living in shacks near landfills. The project’s aim is to raise funds to build houses for these children and their families, as well as to provide clothes and sanitation material. The outreach project works alongside a number of other efforts to provide food, schooling, medical attention and whatever else the children need,” said Piu-Piu.

The outcome was that the brand new clothes reached the children, who were overjoyed and made good use of the GB Wear/Grounded Athletics shorts and shirts. It all fit into Jiu-Jitsu and Gracie Barra philosophy nicely.

“GB Wear through Jiu-Jitsu is seeks out from five to ten projects in Brazil and the rest of the world per year. The philosophy of Grandmaster Carlos Gracie and our master Carlos Gracie Jr. – and now the Gracie Barra family – is to use Jiu-Jitsu to contribute to humanity, improving it every day. GB Wear, being a GB’s uniform and clothing division, follows the same line of thought,” said Marco in closing, reinforcing the team’s new motto, “Jiu-Jitsu for everyone.”

Hillary MD at seminar in Caxias / Photo: personal archive

Hillary Williams is pretty much a Rio de Janeiro native. She complains about the cold, has Jiu-Jitsu skills to spare, and now she’s doing food drives for people in need. At a recent seminar gathering eight black belts in the outlying Caxias region of Rio de Janeiro she collected over 70kg of food for a community institution.

Today she’ll be taking her teaching skills to Petrópolis, where participants will pay the price of 1kg of non-perishable foods. Friday it’s Santa Cruz’s turn.

Information for attending:

Wednesday the 13th
Academia VO2
6pm-8pm
Rua Santos Dumont, 77
Centro, Petrópolis, RJ
Contact:
Academia (24) 2243-1273
Bruninho (24) 8150-4113
Breno Andrade (24) 8855-7427

Friday the 15th
Fundação de Apoio a Escola Técnica – FAETC
11h-13hs
Largo do Bodegão, 46
Santa Cruz, RJ
Contact:
(21) 7801-3220
ID 120*22404
(21) 9449-0440

Black belt Rodrigo Damm (in white) is on the card for the next Jungle Fight. Photo: Susumu Nagao.

Jungle Fight by Pretorian, in Vila Velha, Brazil, hopped aboard the solidarity train that took over Brazil this month of January.

The event set to take place February 19 will receive in the place of tickets 2 kg of non-perishable food or a personal hygiene kit (items needed by the victims of Rio de Janeiro mudslides).

Check out the provisory card:

Jungle Fight by Pretorian
Tartarugão Gymnasium, Vila Velha, Espírito Santo, Brazil
Saturday, February 19, 2011

Francisco Massaranduba vs. Rodrigo Damm

Edilberto Crocotá (Champion Team) vs. Sergio Junior

Antídio Neto vs. Ednaldo Lula Molusco

Renato Moicano vs. João Luis Andrézinho Nogueira

Marcelo Guimarães vs. Paulão Rodrigues