£1,716.25 raised for Kidscape - thank you!

Thank you to everyone for the generous donations - the Essex GrappleThon team have raised well over £1,700 for children's charity Kidscape! For a smaller club this is excellent, and is way beyond the £250 target I had originally set for the team. Over £1,400 was raised via the team's Just Giving page and over £300 was raised on the day from donations from the team, our excellent supporters and the fight-wear auction.

A massive thank you to all my team mates at Origin MMA Academy and friends for taking part, without whom the day wouldn't have been a success.  I'm truly honoured to know and train with such awesome people. We are more than a team, we're family! A special thank you to Marc Walder for his support and being an inspiration to all involved in BJJ. Thank you to my BJJ coach Spencer Hewitt for his support and use of the gym. A big shout out to the kids class and thanks to all the supporters for providing an excellent atmosphere and food! Thanks to Meerkatsu, Battle Gear BJJ and Shieldwall MMA for providing excellent items for the auction. Lastly, much love and thanks to my beautiful wife Lisa and kids Zac and Isabella.

See you all next year for GrappleThon 2015!
Mike

GrappleThon update - new start time of 10am

Please note the charity GrappleThon for Kidscape will now start at 10am on Saturday 12th April 2014. This is so the kids class can take part in the event.

There's only a few weeks till the event now, if anyone would like to donate please visit the link below. Any donation is greatly appreciated - thank you

http://www.justgiving.com/originmmaacademy

 

Another auction update - thank you ShieldwallMMA!

Many thanks to Otto at ShieldwallMMA for the generous 300 style t-shirt donation. These (along with the other items) with be auctioned off in the academy on the day of the GrappleThon, all of the proceeds going to Kidscape.

 

ShieldwallMMA are an excellent UK based MMA clothing company, who actively sponsor UK based fighters. Their new exciting range of fight apparel should be available soon at http://shieldwallmma.com/ . I’ve seen some of their designs and the gear looks awesome. For updates please like or follow them on Facebook or Twitter @shieldwallmma

 

Anyone who wants to sponsor the Grapplethon please visit http://www.justgiving.com/originmmaacademy . Any donation no matter how small is greatly appreciated and it is going to a worthy cause.

 

Thank you 

 

GrappleThon auction update - Thank you Battle Gear!

Special thanks to the guys at Battle Gear who have generously donated a large selection of their fantastic BJJ apparel for the charity GrappleThon auction.  Battle Gear are a UK based company who specialise in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gi's and related apparel. To find out more about this awesome company check out their website http://www.battlegearbjj.com/ .

All items will be auctioned off on the day of the GrappleThon and the proceeds will go to Kidscape.

2014 Essex Grapplethon Video

GrappleThon auction - Thank you Meerkatsu!

I just wanted to say a special thanks to Seymour Yang (aka the wonderfully talented Meerkatsu) for donating some of his highly popular BJJ apparel. Meerkatsu is a fellow BJJ practitioner, talented artist, blogger and gi reviewer. I highly recommend his website http://www.meerkatsu.com/ and blog http://meerkat69.blogspot.co.uk/ . All of these items will be auctioned off on the day and all proceeds will go to Kidscape!

If any other BJJ/fight companies would like to donate anything for the auction please get in contact. It’s really appreciated and proceeds are going to a great cause.


Thank you!

Congrats Spence!

Congratulations to Spencer Hewitt with his win at Cage Warriors!

For info about Origin MMA Academy see http://www.originmmaacademy.com/

Thanks to all who have donated, its really appreciated.
I have now created an independent JustGiving team page for the event so anyone participating in the GrappleThon, who don't wish to use the Origin MMA Academy page can now link their page directly to it. Please note the charity must be Kidscape.

If anyone wants to create their own JustGiving page and link to the new team page simply click on "join the team" here:

http://www.justgiving.com/teams/EssexGrappleThon2014

If any of this doesn't make sense please get in contact.

Ossss

The Kidscape JustGiving page has been up and running for over a week now and we have already raised over £100! Thank you to all those who have donated, it’s really much appreciated.

Also special thanks to Can (aka Slideyfoot) for advertising our GrappleThon on his much viewed website -  http://www.grapplethon.org/ . I highly recommend this website for anyone looking to run their own grapplethon and indeed it has been a tremendous resource for me. Coincidentally Can’s team; Artemis BJJ are also running a grapplethon on the same day in Bristol. They will be rolling for a dreaded 24 hours – good luck guys!  

I’m still looking for grapplers, so if anyone wants to get involved please comment/get in touch.

Date and charity chosen! The GrappleThon will be taking place on Saturday 12th April 2014 at Origin MMA Academy. We will be raising funds for an excellent charity called Kidscape. Kidscape is committed to keeping children safe from abuse. It is the first national charity dedicated to preventing bullying and child sexual abuse. Kidscape believes that protecting children from harm is key.

Donations can be made here, at our JustGiving page...

http://www.justgiving.com/originmmaacademy

Please share with team mates, friends, family and work colleagues.

Also if anyone wants to get involved and grapple please let me know.

Thanks,
Mike

Thank you to all my team mates, the positive response to the GrappleThon has been overwhelming. I also really want to say thank you to those who have already said yes to taking part. If anyone else wants to do the GrappleThon please let me or Spence know. Anyone of any experience/level is welcome. I really want to make this fund raising event a team thing so the more the merrier. And don't worry, no one has to roll for 12 hours straight, if people just turned up for an hour to roll that would be great (as long as there's two people  rolling over the period it counts)!

I will post the date and kids charity later on.

Venue confirmed! The 12 hour long Grapplethon will be held at the Origin MMA Academy in Rainham, Essex. With a provisional early April date.

Massive thanks to my BJJ instructor Spencer Hewitt for his support and use of his gym for this event. Spencer holds the rank of black belt in BJJ and is also a successful MMA fighter; showcasing his skills on some of the largest shows in the UK and Europe.

For more information about Spencer's gym and the large range of classes on offer see below:

http://www.originmmaacademy.com/

I recommend the classes for anyone of any age.  Spencer also runs successful BJJ and MMA classes for kids.  Spencer's BJJ arm of the academy is part of UK pioneer Marc Walder's Mauricio Gomes Origin BJJ Team. Marc has been pivotal in helping raise the profile of BJJ in the UK and was one of the first people to be awarded the rank of black belt in this country.

Next stage is get all my team mates involved and decide on a children's charity for the event.  I'm looking for a charity which specifically helps with child neglect and anti-bullying.

The concept of a Grapplethon is relatively simple;  a group of grapplers (be it from BJJ, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Judo, Wrestling, Sambo etc) come together and roll for a set time period, for a selected charity. There aren't many rules other than that there must be at least two people grappling at any one point over the allotted time slot.

But first let me give you a little bit of background about myself.  My name is Mike, I'm married, have a wonderful wife and two smashing kids who keep me on my toes. I train in a number of combat sports/martial arts, but my real passion is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I've been training BJJ for some years now and hold the rank of purple belt. I train with a great team based at the Origin MMA Academy in Rainham, Essex.

I've always wanted to create a fund raiser, but seeing I'm scared of heights (so no skydiving!) and no marathon runner I thought doing something involving BJJ was ideal for me. To be fair Grapplethon's aren't a new thing and many BJJ teams both in the UK and abroad hold them on a regular basis. Google Grapplethon and you will find tonnes of successful events held by the BJJ community.

I guess the main question is which charity to chose. For me I have a special place in my heart for charities who specifically deal in helping neglected or bullied children. I'm currently in talks with a couple of charities and hope to make an announcement soon.

The next stage is to find a venue, grapplers, date and predetermined timeslot.

Keep watching this space for more info.

Osss.



Welcome to my BJJ Essex GrappleThon  blog - more to follow soon