With the help from Give a gi, the kids from Drive In Academy went to the competition last weekend, and as expected did really well. They took home 9 gold medals, 8 silver and 4 bronze!
Big congrats to them all, and a huge thanks to everyone who helped them by donating!
Also, Mr. Drive In himself competed in Kyra Gracie’s competition and took silver, congratulations!
One of the problems at the Drive In Academy is, that they have to compete in Gracie Barra kimonos, and they can’t afford them. Jason from Gracie Barra Vancouver, collected five of them from his gym and shipped down to Brazil. Thanks to TJ Taylor and Paul Bryan for contributing!
Give a gi just donated R$800 (approx. US$450) to the Drive In Academy in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The instructor, Paulo Pinheiro, has dedicated his life to train poor kids for BJJ competitions, and with huge success, creating several world- and national champions. Only little problem is, that they don’t have money for kimonos or competitions. With the donations received by Give a gi from people around the world, the kids can now afford to compete this weekend and have a great time.
We wish them all good luck and is looking forward to hear from them, how it went. Thanks to everyone sending donations!
A big thanks to Gerry and Kevin from U.S. and Singapore for sending kimonos to the kids in Brazil!! They will be happy to have some cool kimonos to train instead of the old, worn out ones they use now :)
Wyman from American Kickboxing Academy Sunnyvale and One World Jiu Jitsu in California, just shipped a big box of collected gis to the Judo team in Zimbabwe. Thanks a lot for the help, guys!
The super talented kids from Drive In Academy in Rio de Janeiro are training hard and are ready to compete at the Conde Koma championships on October 22nd. Unfortunately, they don’t have any money for the registration fee, so not all of them can go. For the entire team to compete, they need around $850. The Give a gi donation account currently holds around $140, all of which I am planning to donate for the kids to go to this competition. We could use some more though, so if you have a little to spare, then help a kid to get a good experience with Jiu Jitsu next week.
Each donation of $30 will allow one kid from the team to compete, but anything will help really. If you want to help out, press the PayPal button below and follow the instructions:
Thanks!!
After a little pause in the project due to lots of traveling and work for me, I am now back on track coordinating the help to the projects around the world. The Judo gym in Zimbabwe is soon receiving a gi more, this time from Ole in Germany. Thanks a lot!!
Megan from Ilford in London, England took the initiative to set up a donation challenge match in her gym. The loser would have to donate to Give a gi, and we just received the first $20 donation from them.
What a great idea! I hope more people out there would do this, we could really use some money to get the kids of Drive In to defend their titles at the competitions in Brazil this winter and set up some more events in Moldova.
Thanks to the guys from BJJhq.com for donating a gi to the gym in the Dominican Republic!
Michael from New York, who earlier donated a gi to the guys in Dominican Republic, just shipped a white gi, his old white belt, knee pads, shock doctor mouth guard, and a rash guard to the Judo project in Zimbabwe. He wrote in his email:
“I believe in this effort. This art has given so much to me, I am duty bound to give back. As often as possible.”
Thanks once again for the help, Michael!
