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 cannot even imagine how many lives you have changed since the video. I will definitely put it to good use. I can guarantee that everyone who has a daughter, niece, granddaughter, girlfriend or what have you, will sleep a little better at night because of what you girls hae done.

Thank you so much for all of your efforts on trying to stop things like this from happening to any other of the girls out there.

I just used some of your organization's history in my end of course sum up for my word processing and computer tech classes. My overall message this year has been to encourage my middle school aged students to use the tools being learned to find their voice and to be heard.

After I send this email out I plan on purchasing your book to use in future classes.

Thank you for being such a great role model to my students who are told by society and by education in general to sit down and be quiet far too often.

Sincerely,

Calvin

Matheson Junior High

Thank you Dallas for having these helpful dvd training programs. I have 2 daughters and these will bring more awareness to the danger that's out there. Keep up the good work. I applaud everyone involved in making this program, again thank you so much for all the hard work you all have put in.

I read about the wonderful JYF project in my latest People magazine, and immediately had to check out your website. I watched with horror the videotaped abduction of Carly Brucia, and made my 14 year-old daughter watch it as well. This is truly a parent's worst nightmare.

Thank you for this important work.

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.