From a students perspective...

If you are interested in a self defense awareness class, I would strongly recommend Vicki Kawelmacher’s.  I say self defense awareness, because that is what she does; she helps women (and men) be aware of many possible situations we may need to defend ourselves against, and gives us the tools and knowledge to use toward that end.

Hi.  I’m Freda Kurtz and my husband, Chris and I have taken most of Vicki’s classes and will hopefully have all of them under our belts soon.   In addition to that I have recommended her classes to my friends because I believe that she can help them to be better prepared in the event of a bad situation. 

I would really prefer to go into detail of what I like about each class but that would take more than my allotted space here, so I will summarize.
 

• 1. She has a passion about people’s safety and making sure that the bad guy will not take advantage of us.  Some of her family has been the target of abductors and home invasion, so she knows firsthand what can happen, prepared or not.

•  2. Her presentations are very detailed, passionate, humorous and easy to understand.  She makes sure that safety is the first priority, especially in her firearm courses. 

• 3. She makes you think of scenarios that we normally don’t worry about.  For instance, what do you do if someone breaks your front door down while you are home?  She helps you plan your scenarios so that you can maximize the potential of defending yourself or escaping safely with your family.

•  4. She helps you set up your house, car, travel, etc. so that a victimizer will hopefully not bother you, but look for an easier target.

• 5. She offers tools and makes recommendations of tools (security items, pepper spray, knives, signs, tazers) to carry on your person or have about your house to help safeguard against attackers.

• 6. She has an assistant that has earned a fourth degree black belt that teaches women how to use basic forms of Martial Arts to defend against attackers.

I appreciate that Vicki has added the Women’s Safety Academy to the Women’s Shooting Academy in her forum because she understands that firearms are not for everyone, and that we can still greatly enhance our chances of avoiding a bad situation, or getting away from a bad guy, by being aware of what’s out there.

Thank you for the kind words!
-Vicki