This past Monday, the 8th, was historical for Instituto Reação(“Reaction Institute”), a project led by judo and Jiu-Jitsu black belt Flavio Canto. After nearly 10 years of charity work in the Rocinhafavela (low-income housing tract), the project gained high-level facilities at Rocinha’s PAC (Program to Accelerate Growth) complex. The 15-thousand-square-meter sports center will offer, in addition to judo and Jiu-Jitsu, volleyball, swimming and soccer, among other sports. Instituto Reação’s new home base will be a three-storey building with rooms for the education program, social assistance for parents and students, and a dojo of 300m2.
“The new seat of Instituto Reação is even better than I’d dreamed. It’s an honor for us to be given the responsibility of using these facilities as best we can for both sport and education. We are at the fund collection stage of the ICMS project, which has already been approved, so that we can equip the space. After that, the idea so far is to double the number of students, reaching 500 just at this one location,” said Flavio Canto, director-president of Instituto Reação.
President Lula visited the premises and was given a custom gi by the student Matheus. Governor Sergio Cabral and Mayor Eduardo Paes were also honored.
To close out an unforgettable day at Instituto Reaçãon, there was an inaugural training session in style, with around one hundred fighters and students of the project, the Rio de Janeiro state judo team, the army team, athletes and former athletes from the Olympic team, Olympic and World Championship gold medalists, as well as Pan-American and South American champions. Sebastian Pereira, João Gabriel Schlittler, Hugo Pessanha, Leonardo Leite, Marcelo Contini, Mario Sabino and Fálvio Miyata marked their presence, and, of course, Olympic medalist Flavio Canto, who conceived the project, and teachers Geraldo Bernardes, coordinator of the Reação Olympic program, Rio team coach Jucimar Costa and Major Calixto, the military coach.
“The training session at Reação’s new location included big names from domestic judo alongside future promises and some who are already on their way. The idea is to have more such training sessions to serve as inspiration for future champions,” added Canto.
Check out the pictures from the party:
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