Grappling for Gifts is a Jiu-Jitsu-based public charity that supplies gifts to the kids of the Children’s Hospital of Illinois, every December, for their annual Toy Drop Off Day. The charity collaborated with a local gym, Strategic BJJ on a fundraising leg locks seminar this fall.
Grappling for Gifts is a Jiu-Jitsu charity created by black belt Ryan Prouty, who heads the Peoria Athletic Club. After having health issues with his daughter in 2013, including emergency surgery when she was only 4 days old, and a few years of follow-ups at the Children’s Hospital of Illinois, Priytry decided to give something back.
During the hospital’s annual 12 Days of Giving for the holiday, he decided to offer private lessons at his gym for $100, hoping to raise a few hundred dollars to get some gifts for the kids in the hospital. The interest in his classes was enormous so they turned into seminars, and eventually into an annual thing that gave birth to the Grappling for Gifts public charity.
“It started off as a way for me to use the martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jistu as a way to raise money to buy Christmas presents for the kids in the Children’s Hosptial of Illinois,” Ryan told RiverBender. “It started off pretty simple and then just kind of bloomed into something a little bit bigger, where now I’m doing charity seminars, doing charity events, and it’s just gotten a lot bigger the past seven seasons.”
Grappling for gifts founder met the Strategic BJJ head coach, fellow black belt Keith Steinacher through the Jiu-Jitsu community and they decided to do a charitable fundraiser at the gym for the first time last year (fall of 2021).
“After doing this for a few years and Keith got his own place, he asked if I wanted to come down and do a donation-based charity [event], and of course, I jumped at the chance,” said Prouty.
We’ve done it the last couple of years and basically, I show up and his students – or anybody, really … can show up and we kick back, and I show some of my favorite techniques, and we just have a good time.”
“This year was all leg locks,” added Ryan. “I did two hours on how to attack people’s lower extremities – it was kind of fun!”
All the proceedings go toward funding gifts for the kids currently in the Children’s Hospital of Illinois. Ryan has contacts inside that provide him with exactly what is required at the hospital.
According to one of his sources, the hospital was out of vibrating pads that help newborns sleep, so those ae going to be the main focus of this year’s Grappling for Gifts event funds.
If you’d like to help the cause, you can find a donation link at http://grapplingforgifts.com/.
