Neighborhood Jiu Jitsu School Launches Art Contest to Save Academy

Like many other businesses, COVID has been affecting small, family-owned establishments and many have been shutting down permanently. Many other are doing what they can to stay afloat. The Stronghold is a Point Loma family-owned Jiu Jitsu school, owned by Raquel Regno Cusi and her family. The academy has been serving the San Diego community for almost 14 years. "We were grateful enough to receive some government assistance, but since March 2020 we were forced to shut down for more than 8 months and that severely impacted our ability to teach classes and serve our students. Zoom classes worked for a few months, but Jiu Jitsu is a contact sport and many of our students did not have a household partner or mats to train on at home." The Stronghold has had the privilege of teaching thousands of students, ranging from Age 2-85. From Jiu Jitsu, Self-Defense, Fitness and Community Events, the academy has been fortunate to also collaborate with many other local schools, businesses and nonprofit organizations to positively impact the community. Shutting down due to surmounting expenses would be heartbreaking to many families across the county.