100 Different People From 20 Different BJJ Affiliations Show Up To Gracie University, Help Victims Of SoCal Fires

If there’s one thing the Brazilian jiu-jitsu community can do well — besides choke people unconscious and dislocate their limbs — it’s help their communities.

Practitioners of Brazil’s soft art have come together to raise awareness of suicide and mental illness, teach kids to defend themselves against bullies, and help families who have been victims of natural disasters.

Today, the day after Christmas, Rener Gracie and the staff at Gracie University in Torrence, California, witnessed firsthand just what the jiu-jitsu community is capable of.

Gracie University held a Guillotine Mastery seminar in order to help the victims of the southern California fires — otherwise known as the Thomas fires. The only payment required to attend the seminar was bringing something that could be donated to the victims of the fires.

Because the seminar was announced the day before it was set to take place, Rener and his team weren’t expecting much of a turnout.

They were wrong:

“We hosted this seminar on very short notice hoping to get 40 or 50 people to come together for a good cause,” Rener told the Jiu-Jitsu Times via Facebook private messenger. “We got over 100 people from 20+ jiu-jitsu affiliations to donate over 1,000 items for families that lost everything in the Thomas Wildfires. This was the literal definition of “jiu-jitsunited!”

We got over 100 people from 20+ jiu-jitsu affiliations to donate over 1,000 items for families that lost everything in the Thomas Wildfires. This was the literal definition of “jiu-jitsunited!”

Participants donated everything from toys to clothes to baby supplies. They also got a free seminar from undefeated UFC Featherweight Brian Ortega, a student at Gracie University.

There is nothing more beautiful than people from various affiliations coming together to learn the sacred art of jiu-jitsu — except, of course, when they are coming together to learn it for a cause as good as this one.

Check out a video of the seminar below:

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