Comments

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 am very impressed and thank you for what you are doing, the world need more people like you. Thanks from a father of a 6-yr-old girl.

Fantastic. I'm a father of a 13 year old girl and a 15 year old boy.

I've been after both to take some courses. Hopefully this video will help motivate them or at least teach them a few things that could help.

From what I've seen so far of the movie, I'm going to tie them both in a chair and make them watch it.

Thanks again...

So pleased to know you and your work

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.

Shirley and I have both seen this video and feel it is one of the brightest productions that every woman of any age should watch and learn from!

Gayle here from the Sexual Assault Survivors' Centre
Sarnia-Lambton.

Thank you very much for the DVD. You have no idea how
much this is going to be used. Our Public Education person
has 50 different school presentations booked so far, and
she's not done! This DVD will be perfect for our needs.

Thanks again - and all the young people she will reach thank you too.

I think the time and effort that you and your team put into this film is invaluable. I have two daughters, (12 & 14) who are just not interested in taking any type of martial arts, but they have both agreed to sit with me and watch your film. You and your team are an inspiration to all young women everywhere. Thank you for taking the time to make such and incredibly helpful film. Again thank you for the help that this film will be to thousands of young women.

Deputy Director, Adult Court Services

Just thought I would drop a line to say I appreciate what you do for young women.  I have been a Probation Officer for over 25 years, a martial artist for over 30 years and a self-defense and personal safety instructor for over 20 years.  During every session I teach I encourage young women and their parents to go to your web page for valuable information to enhance their personal safety.  Keep up the good work.

I work for Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth of Marquette County, Wisconsin as the Montello Prevention Coordinator. One aspect of my job is running a junior high and high school group that focuses on educating about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and giving the kids better things to do than using substances. I am working on bringing a Date Rape Awareness week to the high school in the spring and when I heard about this dvd I had to have it!!! In college I was a victim of 2 separate rapes. The first rape was an aquaintance rape and the second was a stranger rape. My life has changed forever, both of the rapes happened when I was 21 within 5 weeks of each other (I am only 22 now so the memories are very vivid), but this job gives me an outlet that will allow my pain to possibly prevent future women from going through what I went through and am still going through. I thank you very much for making this dvd, more than you could ever know!

Thank you for the DVD. I wanted to let you know that I really admire you for coming up with "Just Yell Fire." It is really neat to see a proactive approach to the issues of violence that women face. What an empowering world you are creating! Thank you for making a difference.