Comments

This is a comment sent in to our trainers Leila Rae Sommerfeld and Valerie Mainridge of Gresham, OR

Thank you again from our entire team! You and Valerie did such a fabulous job. Several of our volunteers commented at the end that your traiing was the best self-defense class they had ever taken - and several had attended classes in the past. you adapted your presentation to fit perfectly into our time constraints and skill level. You and Valerie brought such great energy and enthusiasm to our class. We especially appreciate you taking time on a Sunday. We feel empowered to continue to advocate for sexually exploited women in and around Portland.

We are so pleased to know you and your work. I hope this is only the beginning of our partnership.

I am the media Specialist at Wittenberg Elementary/Middle School and I just downloaded your "Just Yell Fire!" for our School nurse. In watching the beginning to see if the download worked, I was instantly drawn in by how good it was. I watched the entire program and will be having my 17 year old daughter watch it tonight. Thank you for making available such a well done presentation on a very important topic. Our pre-teen and teenage girls need to hear repeatedly that they have the right to say "NO!" and that they can change their minds. They also need to know what to do if they find themselves in one of these situations.

Hi there, I watched "Just Yell Fire" last night with my 13 year old daughter at a viewing held by REACH of Macon County, North Carolina. This is a tremendous service you are performing - thank you so much for taking action and giving girls (& women) a valuable tool to protect themselves. Thanks so much!

I commend you and all involved in such an important mission. Before becoming a stay-at-home mom who is very active in my community, I was a journalist for 12 years. Throughout much of my career I covered both the education beat and crime and public safety for daily newspapers such as the Oregonian, Seattle Times and various San Francisco Bay Area papers. I remember opening the top drawer of my desk at work one day only to realize I had accumulated too many photos of murdered or missing children. I have interviewed many families who have suffered from this loss and do not wish it upon anyone. I have to admit my experiences made me quite paranoid about the concerns regarding child abduction, rape, torture and all other unfathomable things people might do to any child. Although honestly, because of my experiences I truly believe folks can never be too careful these days. That is why this project hits close to my heart. Again my sincerest congratulations and gratitude to everyone who conceived, participated and are still involved with your Just Yell Fire project.

Dear Dallas,

20 more High School students were empowered today..at Pope John Paul II High School in Hyannis, Mass..Cape Cod...We watched the video...and practiced the techniques on each other...wow..in one hour...I could see some of our students who didnt think they could "fight back"...or fight like as girl...really believe that they could be powerful in their own way and not be a victim!!

God Bless you for your work empowering young women! Peace and Blessings,

I just finished watching the Just Yell Fire video. It actually upset me a little bit... I really could have used that when I was younger. I was sexually assaulted on a date in high school, and I never talked about it but it messed me up mentally for a long time. I really wish that I had been able to see this movie so that I could have defended myself, and now I can... Thank you so much for bringing this to me...

Everyone I work with is a high school girl or a young college-age young woman. The statistics on that show are totally alarming. I bet half of everyone I know has had something happen to them, or will someday. I know everyone thinks it won't happen to them.... But it does.

I am wrapping up the semester and showed your story again. I talk to my students about finding a voice, being empowered etc. My goal is to get them to realized the power they have through the tools we learn in my class.

Anyway, after we got done talking about you and others who have found a voice, I let them log onto your website and encouraged to look at "Just Yell Fire", we had already talked about the video's origins and message. At the end of class a very quiet 8th grader who never really speaks out much came up to my desk.

"Do you know how fast they can send the video? I am going to be moving soon."

Maybe that doesn't have the impact for you that it had on me. I have no idea what her personal story is, but the really timid girl making such an inquiry made me wonder.

I don't know how long videos take to ship. But I happily gave her mine. She was stunned and looked at it and then me with a wide eye, then said thanks and walked back to her seat still looking at it.

It was a nice moment, just wanted to share.

Thanks for who you are and what you stand for.

I loved your project.

It resonated.

I teach martial arts and care about the students.

Thank you for your vision.

I am a junior at Gettysburg College in PA. I don't know if you have been watching the news lately, but there has been a murder on our college campus last Thursday. One student (a male senior) strangled and murdered his (ex-)girlfriend of one year (a sophomore). It really shook our campus hard, along with myself, even though i did not know either one that was involved. After breaking down a little tonight, i realized, crying was not going to change the past; nor prevent incidents, assaults, nor murders like this from happening again in the future.

What will? Taking action!

I found your contact information after googling 'self defense for women classes' and wanted to get in contact with you right away. I was hoping you could hold self defense classes for female students, or any woman (faculty, staff or students) on our campus to help protect us if we were to ever get ourselves in this type of situation. It is very scary to know that an innocent 19 year old young woman was strangled, stabbed and murdered by someone that loved her for a year. Not even a stranger, or a crazy drug addict rapist on the street! Her boyfriend! Someone she trusted and loved! How scary is that? She was not able to get away, she was not able to defend herself. She died because of that.

But you... you have the power to give us woman that power. You have the ability to give us woman the ability to defend ourselves. To win. To live. And to help with our recovery of her death on our campus. I believe that immediately holding these self defense classes on our campus will prove that Emily Rachel Silverstein did not die in vain.

Please help me, help us. Give us the power, the ability to defend ourselves and live.

While working out at the gym today, I saw your organization's segment on the Montel Williams show. On the TV next to the one showing your segment was a news report on Fox News showing an 18 year old girl that was just abducted from a Target in KS. My daughter was working out at the gym with me. I would like to request one of your DVD's for her. I want her to have the information that she needs to help her know what to do if she ever finds herself in that kind of situation.