Full Name: Raul Eudes Chavez

Belt Colour: Purple Belt

Guys, he is just playing around making fun of that guy who promoted himself to brown belt.. This guy in the video Raul is actually a LEGIT purple belt, I believe he is also a world medalist. -Kyle Sleeman

Professor: Fernando "Gringo" Zulick

Gringo has had a tremendous impact on my life. He pushes me to compete at a higher level than I ever thought possible. He also allowed me to start Project X Guard by donating free mat space and time. His positive influence and attitude is seen in all his students. He has embraced my family and made us feel welcome from day one when we transferred over from other academies. We decided to transfer to his school because they offered a great kids program and I wanted my kids to experience BJJ as well.

Short Term Goals: To grow Project X Guard into the largest non-profit in Canada and continue to help more at-risk youths.

On June 9th, 2019, I was invited to cover a fundraiser event created by Raul Chavez, the president of Project X Guard. I was delighted to come and support as I knew how many people BJJ helped and in the past year, I've come into contact with many practitioners that proved the message he was portraying. Jiu-Jitsu saves lives. Project X Guard is a non-profit organization that helps at-risk youths find a better life through BJJ.

Raul is an excellent leader/role model and is someone that has been through his own trials and tribulations. During this event, he shared with me some of the experiences that lead him to create this organization. Keep reading to learn more about his traumatic experiences and how he managed to find peace within himself by helping others achieve their full potential. 

I had no idea what I wanted to do to help out Raul with this event but thanks to martial arts & BJJ, I learned to keep practicing and to figure out the puzzle until I had a solution. I remembered a lesson I learned in my youth while volunteering at The Mon Sheong Foundation where I ran a silent auction and figured that would be a great idea for this event and have the highest bidder win our Limited Edition Shark Frenzy Kimono GI with all proceeds going back to Raul and his organization.

Shop Limited Edition BJJ Gear

Congratulations @jiujitsupatricia on winning the silent auction at the @projectxguard fundraiser. Follow @projectxguard to learn more about their work. 

For the past year or two, I've found some very interesting stories and real-life examples of how jiu-jitsu can help at risk-youths and other life issues and I decided it would be a great idea to share them with people at this event to help parents and others get a better understanding of the power of this martial art. If you haven't seen these stories, make sure to check it out!

On top of our silent auction, we wanted to see if there was anything else we can do to potential help raise funds for this organization and we decided to do a patch sale where proceeds went towards Project X Guard. If you are still interested in supporting this organization, make sure to pick up your patches here.  

This event featured a high-level BJJ tournament with some of Ontario, Canada's most skilled practitioners where the winner received a $1000 sponsorship to compete at an international event.

The stakes were high and the awareness it brought was electrifying as the energy of the teammates and audience looked on. Congratulations to everyone that competed and thank you all for supporting Raul and his organization. You all represented the Canadian BJJ scene well by fighting your hardest and respecting all of your opponents and their coaches.

When the action was over and the crowd and competitors left, I had the privilege to sit down and speak with Raul about not only this event but also his own personal life experiences that lead him to create Project X Guard. We discussed some very useful strategies and lessons for others that might be struggling with life like how he did in his youth.

From addiction to witnessing domestic violence and more, Raul Chavez is someone that changed his circumstances through his kind-spirit and is using his passions of Jiu-Jitsu to help others do the same. Please take the time to learn about a positive story within Raul and his work as his message is something that needs to be heard.

Find out more about Project X Guard and contact Raul if you are interested in supporting his work at projextxguard@gmail.com

I want to give a special thanks to my friend Darren Ramkumar for helping me at this event as well as Barbie from Elevata BJJ for inspiring me to keep swimming with Submission Shark and for the beautiful notebook that I will be using for my own Jiu-Jitsu journey. Check out her work as well! And thanks to Zac Cunningham for your motivating words before this event, it really helped me step outside my comfort zone.