Safford Employees Hit the Mark with Jiu-jitsu Uniform Donation

November 18, 2024 - A shared passion and a bit of generosity came together perfectly when three Freeport employees at the company’s Safford, Arizona, site donated new training uniforms to a jiu-jitsu team in Calama, near the El Abra operation in Chile.

Granger Moffett, Hydromet Technical Coordinator-Safford, and Aaron Draper, General Manager Operations-El Abra, had practiced jiu-jitsu together for years. When Draper, a brown belt, took a job in South America, though, there were concerns he might not be able to continue — so he was thrilled to share he had found a new academy. But when Moffett, a nearly 20-year jiu-jitsu veteran and academy owner saw the poor state the South America team’s uniforms, he knew they had to help.

"It's about the community," Moffett said. "Jiu-jitsu is all about improving the lives of the people in the sport. As a black belt and as an academy owner, I had the responsibility and opportunity to make that happen."

However, it was not a gesture he could pull off alone.

In Calama, appropriate gear can be hard to obtain, especially with the long lead times for delivery. For Moffett, already having established contacts with jiu-jitsu suppliers, it was more a matter of logistics, making sure that the uniforms they secured made it into Draper’s hands.

To do that, the pair enlisted the help of another Freeport employee and jiu-jitsu practitioner, blue belt Jeremy Pompeo, Manager Maintenance-Safford. When Draper arrived at the recent MINExpo tradeshow, Pompeo was on hand to deliver a duffel bag full of uniforms, while Draper ensured that what happened in Vegas most certainly did not stay there.

In October, Draper returned to South America and presented the uniforms to the other students. The team was overwhelmed with the generosity of someone they had never met, he said. Together, Moffett, Draper and Pompeo were able to outfit about a third of the Calama team with that one trip. Now, the group is already planning how to deliver more uniforms until the entire team has been equipped.

“We have some very kind-hearted people working at Freeport,” Draper said. “They are doing a lot for not only their local communities, but across the world.”

Photos (top to bottom): Aaron Draper (left), Granger Moffett and Jeremy Pompeo have practiced jiu-jitsu for years, earning brown, black and blue belts (respectively); Aaron Draper (back row, third from left) with the Chilean jiu-jitsu team that he, Granger Moffett and Jeremy Pompeo helped outfit.